United with Ukraine: Inverness rallies in support of refugees fleeing the fighting with dozens of locals donating as dozens gather to condemn the Russian invasion
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INVERNESS is rallying to help in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, showing solidarity with those caught up in the conflict as well as providing practical support.
Dozens of people turned out to a vigil held in Falcon Square in the city centre on Saturday as local businesses issued appeals for donations of goods to help in what is expected to become a major refugee crisis.
The owner of the A Touch of Poland store in Inverness’s Tomnahurich Street, Tomasz Sawczuk, said it was accepting donations of all essential items. These include thermal clothing, shoes, underwear, blankets, towels, pillows, sleeping bags, tents, backpacks, torches, prams, car seats, batteries, camp beds, first aid and sanitary supplies and baby bottles and formula milk.
Despite the horror of war he said the outpouring of sympathy and the wave of donations received already had left him with “a big smile on my face.” He said: “Most of the people trying to get out of Ukraine really need help but they don’t expect it, they mostly don’t have family in Poland so they really need our help (when they get there).
“We are collecting until the end of Tuesday then driving it first thing in the morning to Perth where we are working with the Polish community there.”
Inverness man Simeon Ewing previously lived and worked in Ukraine as a charity worker caring for children and has been getting first-hand reports of the plight of many families there.
He described how one young woman is trapped with her nine- month-old son in the city of Mariupol in south-east Ukraine
“They are in pretty dire circumstances as the city is under serious attack from all sides and angles and they are just trying to ride it out,” he said.
He also talked of another girl, Olya, who is fleeing with her husband Mark.
“They are near the border with Romania, in a 50km queue, and they have got three kids,” he said
Mr Ewing has been working with charity Children’s Ministry Ukraine to help connect people with assistance, managing through a Portuguese friend to put the couple in touch with a Scottish man in Bucharest who is willing to drive to the border and pick them up.
Nairn woman Iryna Polovska, originally from Ukraine, said her home city of Lviv in the west of Ukraine has become “inundated” with refugees.
“It is unbelievable how they think, how they can take the lives of men, women and children,” she said of the Russian assault.
“There is no excuse, no explanation, there is nothing – there are no words to describe people who think it is OK to kill other people in their homes.
“[The support has been] overwhelming – and not only the Polish community who started it.
“Locally the response has been incredible, people had an immediate reaction offering to provide as much as they could.
“I am not sure I can explain how grateful we are.
“The people in Ukraine that are planning to leave – they know about the support that has been organised for them and
they are extremely grateful and it keeps their morale up.
“The general feeling is we must survive and be strong and it helps that other people are doing what they can to help them so that is all good.”
Inverness and Nairn MP Drew Hendry said he would support any move to accommodate Ukrainian refugees in the region.
“This is not something that the people of Ukraine have wished upon themselves and they are reacting to desperate circumstances, so I would support any facilities being made available in order to try and accommodate helping refugees here in the Highlands and, of course, across the other nations of the UK,” he said.
