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The day after Olga Moroz managed to escape Ukraine with an aim of seeking refuge with her family in Jersey, her village was bombed by Russian forces.
She is now in Warsaw and has just one final hurdle to clear - getting her visa.
But the visa processing centre is a picture of chaos, according to her brother-in-law, Matt Palmer.
After it was confirmed last week that siblings of Ukrainian islanders would be eligible for a visa to seek refuge in Jersey, Matt, who heads up the island’s Cyber Emergency Response Team (CERT), started his journey to the Polish border to pick up Olga and reunite her with her sister in Jersey, Mariya.
Before that, she had been sheltering in her basement in a village in her village, Khotiv, to the southwest of Kyiv.
At that point, Russian forces were yet to penetrate - the “city was fairly quiet and people had been told not to take pictures and videos in order not to let the Russians know what was going on,” Matt explained.
But residents knew an assault would not be far off, and were quietly preparing for the face-off.
Olga was fortunately able to get to Ternopil, which is in the western part of Ukraine, and took a bus to the border.
Onboard, fleeing residents were packed like sardines for five hours. “It was standing room only – lots of people were there trying to get out of the country in any way they could,” said Matt.
He explained that Olga had fled with just two suitcases of “essentials”, but that “many people [on the bus] had left without any possessions or just with a small rucksack.”
“She was telling me there was a lady on the bus who had brought nothing but her cat,” he added.
As she made that journey, Matt was travelling to meet her on the other side of the border.
He flew from Jersey to Heathrow and then Warsaw, before driving to meet her.
The roads, he recalled, were largely void of normal residential cars. Instead, he observed convoy after convoy “marked with humanitarian aid or with Ukrainian flags marked on them.”
“There was one chap in a car towing a piece of ageing military equipment – presumably out of Ukraine.”
Having reached the border, he waited for Olga. It was biting cold.
“There were quite a few people stood around, volunteers and people who had come through recently looking for lifts. It was freezing when I got there, 2.5 degrees when I left Warsaw and 0 degrees at the border and that in the middle of the day.
“I arrived at about 12:00, but, by the time I picked her up about 16:00, it was about minus 2… and it was snowing.”
When Olga finally came through, the reunion was emotional, but coated in bittersweetness.
“It’s wonderful to know that your family are safe but it is always tinged at the moment with the knowledge of just how much suffering there is,” Matt said.
“We are very very fortunate – I can’t say that enough – very fortunate, that our family are safe and that we can look after her as a family.
“That’s not the case for everyone. Some people have lost loved ones. They’ve lost children, they’ve lost parents, they’ve lost their homes, they’re the people who are really suffering."
For those who had completed the perilous journey over the border, “amazing” support from Poland was in abundance.
To welcome the “steady stream” of hundreds of people coming through, there were stands serving “hot food including polish sausages, and tea and coffee”.
Pictured: There were plenty of stalls on the other side of the Polish border to welcome those fleeing Ukraine.
Free toiletries, clothing and other essential items were being offered freely from stalls, and Orange were handing out free simcards with data so that people could easily contact their relatives.
“Poland really stepped up here. Their response has been extraordinary.
“In addition to providing food and hot drinks at the border, when we drove to Warsaw we stopped halfway at a service station to find that there as well there were a whole series of hot food provision, drinks and essentials being handed out to Ukrainian refugees, all pretty much staffed by volunteers.
“As we made our way to Warsaw yesterday, there are demonstrations against the war and even the buses have Ukrainian flags on them.”
But the UK visa processing centre - based in a conference centre on the outskirts of Warsaw, far away from bus stops or train stations - offered a much less supportive environment.
Painting a picture of the scenes at the centre to Express yesterday, Matt explained: “We got there at 08:00 this morning to find there was already a significant queue of people trying to get an interview and work out what happens next, but most people were just stood around outside the hall they were processing visas in and not being allowed through.
“We tried to get close to it and find out what’s going on. I spoke with a lady who was running the processing and she told me that she only had five staff and 1,000 visa requests and could maybe offer 200 appointments, so people were being turned away.
“There was a huge crowd, no information available, just a sign that said ‘please wait’ but no guidance at all and people were being turned away if they didn’t have appointments.
“That’s ok for us – we are able to go back tomorrow morning and hopefully our visa will be processed, but the man who submitted his request two hours after me was telling me the earliest date they could give him was 24 March.
“That’s three weeks – we’re lucky because we get to wait in a hotel and fly home to a safe place but they have nothing with them, no possessions, no food, no money, nowhere to stay – and are now being asked to wait several weeks for a visa appointment.”
Those who tried to hang around were told that it was “useless” to stay.
Pictured: Some people were turned away at the visa centre and told it was "useless" to stay, according to Matt.
To get an appointment, individuals have to submit a form online, which involves uploading additional documents in PDF format. That form must then be printed off and brought to the centre.
"Not many people fleeing a war zone stop to remember their computer or printer. It’s a huge ask. It’s an almost impossible ask to go through this process.”
Matt continued: “There were some people there with small children and no English skills and one man told me he’d come with his sister-in-law, but they had been told that they couldn’t go to the UK because his wife had not lived in the UK long enough so they were sat at the visa centre wondering what on earth they were going to do next.”
Another man, Matt learned, was unable to submit his visa for himself and his family all together. “He had lost track of his family and was now trying to find them again” amid the chaos.
“I think the local team are in extremely difficult circumstance where they have hundreds of people desperately trying to get visas – if they really do only have five members of staff, that’s impossible to manage.
“I have to ask, how many staff does the British Government have in London and why can’t there by more in Warsaw for one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time?
“I think it’s a reasonable question to ask.”
1/2 This is what you need to do @pritipatel: 1) provide computers for people to submit applications at the centre, 2) have an English and Ukrainian speaking national front of house to help and advise, 3) liaise with Polish counterparts to ensure people have support while
— Matt Palmer (@signalfish) March 8, 2022
In contrast, Matt said that the Government of Jersey deserved credit for its “exceptional” help.
One such example was when “we did hit a hitch in that the visa form did not recognise Jersey postcodes."
“However, the Government of Jersey were very good and jumped on this at the weekend and provided a workaround so we were able to submit the form.”
Citing the Government’s £1m aid donation, plus the £250,000 support for Ukrainians coming to Jersey, and islanders’ efforts to collect and send more than 9,000 bags of donations to Poland and Romania to help Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russian aggression, Matt said he was “genuinely impressed at what the island has been able to do.”
“It really shows the island at it’s best.”
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