how Belgorod volunteers help Ukrainian refugees and evacuated Russians

After the start of the SVO, several streams of people in need of help passed through the Belgorod region. By March 2024, Ukrainian refugees were replaced by Russians who fled dangerous border areas. In addition to the state, various volunteer organizations help them. Kommersant correspondent Emilia Gabdullina visited the Help Center for Yulia Nemchinova, a Kharkov resident who moved to Belgorod back in 2014. She spoke about the needs of refugees and the work of the center over the past two years.

Yulia Nemchinova’s morning begins at the Ozon order distribution point – a volunteer picks up humanitarian aid from there almost every day. “Those who want to help place and pay for the order we need, and we only provide the address of the pickup point. Then I pick it up, photograph it at the stages of receipt and delivery to those in need – and send a report. This way people know that their funds have definitely been used,” explains the woman.

She delivers humanitarian aid throughout Belgorod in her personal car, where she always keeps a bulletproof vest and helmet. Getting into the car, the Kommersant correspondent automatically reached for the seat belt. “We don’t wear seat belts now,” Ms. Nemchinova stopped. “Because in the event of a missile threat, you only have a few seconds to run out of the car and find shelter.” On the way, she says that her organization has about 30 regular volunteers, of which 12–15 people work at the center every day. There are more than 200 people who helped at least once. All work of the center is coordinated by Yulia Nemchinova herself and two deputies.

The volunteer center occupies a very small room – no more than 50 square meters. In the vestibule there is a closet with children’s toys, dishes and books, as well as several boxes of shoes – all of this can be taken for free and in unlimited quantities. In the main room there are shelves with piles of outerwear and racks with other things. Everything is neatly labeled – gender, age and size. Yulia Nemchinova emphasizes that volunteers check every item for defects and stains: “Unfortunately, some philanthropists believe that this is how they can get rid of their unnecessary things. They bring whatever they want, and they come across something torn and dirty. Sometimes it’s very embarrassing.” A person can take things from this room no more than once a month, and by appointment – so that there is no crowding. But you can take away as much clothing as you need – there are no restrictions, says Mrs. Nemchinova: “The only thing is that we register every item that is taken away. The person fills out the consent to the processing of personal data and the act of receipt.”

In another room there are food products, household chemicals, dishes, as well as pillows, blankets and bed linen. Here, too, strict records are kept. “Refugees from Ukraine can receive comprehensive assistance once – a food set, a set of detergents, pillows, a blanket, bed linen, dishes and everything that is needed,” the volunteer lists. “A standard food set consists of pasta, cereals, sugar, flour, vegetable butter, stewed meat, canned fish, canned vegetables, condensed milk and tea.” The center also keeps separate records of vulnerable categories – people over 70 years of age, people with disabilities, pregnant women, people with many children, those who have been injured and those who have lost loved ones. Volunteers take them under special care: “Later we again invite them to receive help and organize events for them. There are about 700 such people in total.”

Now fewer and fewer refugees from Ukraine receive regular food and other packages, says Ms. Nemchinova – many have already obtained Russian citizenship and can count on help from the state. But volunteers do not forget them – they create social integration programs for their former wards.

Recently, the center’s volunteers began teaching first aid to citizens. “You know that on December 30 last year there was a terrorist attack in Belgorod (meaning the shelling of several areas of the city, which killed 25 people and injured 100 more.— “Kommersant”). At that time, as a volunteer, I found myself at the epicenter of events – in front of me was a wounded young man. And although I took the theory of first aid, I didn’t know how to act on the spot,” admits Yulia Nemchinova. “I realized that this needs to be learned with practice, and I went to special courses.” Since then, more than 2.5 thousand Belgorod residents have completed three-hour training at the center. Here, volunteers collect first aid kits – they are distributed to those who cannot purchase the necessary set of medicines.

There were two volunteer girls sorting things in the room. They were too busy for a detailed conversation, but still told a Kommersant correspondent that they came to the center for the first time as refugees. It turned out that both lived in Kharkov and were forced to leave due to shelling. In March 2022, they turned to Yulia Nemchinova: “First they received help, then they saw an advertisement that the center needed helpers, and they decided to become volunteers too.”

In a conversation with Kommersant, Yulia Nemchinova said that she also came to Belgorod from Kharkov. “After the events of 2014, my husband and I began to collect and transport humanitarian aid on our own to the Svyatogorsk Lavra in the Donetsk region. Then my husband was kidnapped by the “Azovites” (the Azov battalion is recognized as a terrorist organization and is banned in the Russian Federation.— “Kommersant”), he was shot in the legs and arrested. Then my mother and children and I left for Belgorod. On false charges of separatism and terrorism, the husband was in a pre-trial detention center for 13 months. I wrote to all authorities, international organizations – the OSCE, the UN, and Helsinki. When my case was already before the European Parliament, my husband was released for a ransom. Of course, after the start of the SVO, we could not stay away.”

According to her, in March 2022, a volunteer movement began to form in the region – mainly from those who themselves came to Belgorod as refugees. “There were so many people that we didn’t have time to register everyone,” recalls Ms. Nemchinova. “Then we created the first chatbot system through which you can apply for help. Processing requests, we began to create humanitarian kits.” Volunteers began accepting the second influx of refugees in September 2022, when Russian troops left the territory of the Kharkov region: “A huge flow of people came from there, we began to meet them at the border. Over the course of a week, more than 70 thousand people crossed the border. At our center we received 500–600 people a day.” According to the center, by the end of 2022, 36 thousand people had already contacted them: “People simply swam across rivers with one passport. I remember how one woman thanked us with tears for a used pillowcase – because they had nothing. And the most important thing for us was to show these people that they are not alone, that someone needs them.”

In the summer of 2023, the center switched to helping Russians evacuated from the border areas of the Belgorod region – in particular, from Shebekino and Novaya Tavolzhanka. The same work is being carried out now with refugees from the Grayvoronsky urban district: “Already 2.5 thousand evacuees are in temporary accommodation centers. But, according to my estimates, only 10–15% of those who evacuated reach the temporary temporary residence point; the rest are resettled on their own. And the help is aimed specifically at them.” The main requests now are food, household chemicals, pillows and bed linen.

Those who refuse to leave dangerous areas also need help. The situation is complicated by the fact that volunteers do not have the right to be there. “Help for those who remained to live there is delivered through the defense department,” says Yulia Nemchinova. “They fill out an application, I make the purchase, then the defense department delivers everything necessary and sends a report.”

Since March 12, a new request has appeared – more and more residents of Belgorod want to leave the region to wait out the intensified shelling: “There are a lot of such people. Even if you are at home, all these events are a huge stress. It’s worth a lot to go somewhere for at least a week or two and feel safe.” Recently, the Consortium of Moscow Universities donated 3.5 million rubles to volunteers – they will be spent on taking children to quiet regions. Let us recall that earlier Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported that against the backdrop of shelling, 9 thousand schoolchildren would be taken from the region to children’s camps. “But there are children of preschool age – they will not go on their own, they need to be taken out with an accompanying person. There are disabled children, there are very young schoolchildren of seven or eight years old – they won’t go alone either. And we take out such children,” says Yulia Nemchinova.

By March 27, the center managed to remove two groups. Six children with mental disorders went with their parents for rehabilitation in the Tula region. Six more families with preschool children went to Yeisk (Krasnodar Territory). “We recently received an offer from the head of Dagestan – the region is ready to accept 500 school-age children and 50 preschool children with their parents,” says the volunteer. “So we formed a group of preschool children in half a day – the number of people willing is colossal.” In the center’s chat there are also ordinary residents of other regions who are ready to host families from the Belgorod region – volunteers provide them with an information platform.

Now the center is in dire need of helpers, because many volunteers are afraid to leave their homes in the face of increased shelling. Thus, one of the Kharkov residents with whom the Kommersant correspondent spoke decided to take the child from Belgorod to a safer region. “I don’t have enough hands or wheels—I almost always transport humanitarian aid myself. There is also a lack of funding – we mainly live on donations from ordinary people,” says Yulia Nemchinova. “But still, money is not the main thing. We don’t give pasta, we don’t give pillows – we give goodness.”

Emilia Gabdullina