Tickets for Ukrainian refugees to leave Russia

We are helping Ukrainian refugees who fled the war zone into Russian territory and now want to leave Russia. We are buying railway and bus tickets so they can reach European border and cross to Estonia, Latvia or Poland.

For many Ukrainian citizens evacuation to Russia is the only way to escape the war zone or the occupied territories. BBC reported that according to the UN data about 1,3 mln Ukrainians were recorded in Russia as of 21 June 2022.

Many of the refugees who found themselves in Russia don’t want to stay there and are seeking ways to cross the border to the nearest country, usually Estonia, Latvia or Poland. Noone is preventing Ukrainian citizens from leaving, but it is not as straightforward as it seems.

Ukrainian refugees are distributed among the Temporary Accomodation Centers (TAC) that are located across the country, so they can be in a significant distance from the border, which makes travel quite expensive. And since Visa and Mastercard seized operations in Russia people coming from abroad, including Ukraine, cannot use their debit or credit cards and hence cannot access their savings. Meaning that some refugee families can be stuck in Russia.

That’s where we come in. If Ukrainian refugees can’t afford to buy tickets but wish to leave Russia, we will purchase railway tickets for them. We will cover all the necessary tickets within Russia to reach the Estonian, Latvian or Polish border through the cheapest possible reasonable route.

The average railway ticket costs 3 to 4 thousand roubles (52-70 Euros), tickets for children under five are free. There are additional costs for pet transfer and many families are traveling with their pets.

After the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam our expenses skyrocketed. The most vulnerable people from the villages in the flooded zone lost everything (and they didn't have much) and now are fleeing the wasteland to Europe through Russia. Russia is the only possible transit route, which puts a lot of pressure on our project. 

Combined with inflation and seasonal price increase for train tickets our project is close to being broke. 

As of 16 July 2023 we bought 19433 tickets. 

Our latest report for the week of 16 July 2023 (in Russian, but Google Translate handles it perfectly)

Further details and reports can be found on the website: ua2eu.site

Our public supporters include:

• Boris Akunin, writer 
• Elena Bunina, ex CEO of Yandex 
• Asya Kazantseva, scientific journalist
• Roman Chernin, CEO at Yandex GEO 
• Victor Zakharov, Professor, St.Petersburg State University

Full list of donors can be found in https://ua2eu.site/donors.html (in Russian)