A student at the University of Public Service in Budapest, and a writer for the street paper Fedél Nélkül, gives an account of the Hungarian response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as refugees have poured over the border with the neighbouring oppressed nation. With around 200,000 people (a number that is rising every day) having now fled to Hungary from Ukraine, aid organisations and grassroots fundraisers, includng efforts by the social services provided by Fedél Nélkül, are working overtime to help those who need it.

Narodna Dopomoha is an aid organisation based in the western Ukrainian city Chernivtsi, near the border with Romania, which has been working with internally displaced people in Ukraine since the initial conflict in the country’s eastern Donbas region was instigated by Russian military forces in 2014. The organisation’s work has increased dramatically in the last week after Russia escalated the conflict to a full-scale invasion. One of the organisation’s project leaders, Anastasiya Beridze spoke to INSP about the work they are doing. The organisation was previously linked to the street paper Gazeta Kiev until it ceased publication several years ago.

As Russia invades Ukraine, it’s anticipated that more than a million people may flee the country to seek refuge in neighbouring nations like Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Street papers in those places respond to the ongoing conflict, standing in solidarity with the Ukrainian people’s right to democracy and in support of all those who may flee.