Alisa, a 16-year-old art student from Kharkiv, arrived in Hungary in April with her family after fleeing their apartment in the suburb of Saltivka, which had been under heavy shelling for weeks on end.
After two days in a Budapest hotel, the family found an elderly Hungarian couple living in the countryside nearby who agreed to host Alisa, her brother and parents. The couple said their Ukrainian guests could stay as long as they needed.
But recently, as the Hungarian government announced massive increases in energy bills for households that use above the national average, the couple made an embarrassed request.
“Back then, they said we could stay until the end of the war, but now they’ve realised they can’t afford the energy bills. They very politely told us we had to leave,” said Alisa, who spent the summer working long shifts in a Hungarian factory, even though she is still a minor.
“It took me two buses and four hours to get there, and the same to get back every day. The work was tiring, taking apart old electronics for hours on end. But at least I got some money which I could help my family with,” she said.
In the six months since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the countries that border Ukraine, as well as others all across Europe, have launched an unprecedented effort to help millions of Ukrainian refugees. Governments have funded emergency support programmes, and millions of ordinary citizens have volunteered to provide food, clothing and shelter.
But as an uncertain and potentially costly winter approaches, governments are rolling back support programmes for Ukrainians, while many volunteers who were happy to host a Ukrainian family for a few weeks or months are now realising that the war could go on for years. More and more Ukrainian refugees are finding themselves struggling to make ends meet.
“There is a wave of evictions now from families who say they cannot afford to be hosts,” said Anastasia Chukovskaya, a Russian volunteer living in Budapest, who has set up an organisation to help Ukrainians arriving in Hungary.
Some Ukrainian refugees have settled into new lives across Europe and are prospering. But while young and internet-savvy Ukrainians have been able to access aid, find information and connect with people willing to help, aid workers say it is often the older and more vulnerable refugees, especially those who cannot speak English or other foreign languages, who do not know where to turn and can fall between the cracks.
“There is a real issue with food and provisions, and there are people who genuinely don’t have enough to eat, and don’t know how to access help,” said Chukovskaya.
Even those with money face the uncertainty of not knowing when it might be safe or possible to return home, as well as host populations that may be souring towards Ukrainians.
One refugee, from the western Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk, came to Budapest with her son when the war broke out, because her husband had been working in a factory there for the past two years. They have rented a room in a dormitory run by the company her husband works for, but in recent weeks the management have told the family to leave as the space is needed for other workers.
The woman, who did not want her name published, said she could not return to Ivano-Frankivsk because several relatives from east Ukraine whose houses have been destroyed were now living in her apartment. She has enough money to rent a small apartment in Budapest, but she has found it impossible to find a landlord willing to rent to her.
“When we say we are Ukrainian and we have a child, it’s just ‘No, no, no.’ I called around 70 different apartments and they all said no,” she said. “I honestly have no idea what we are going to do.”
Other European countries have proved much more welcoming than Hungary. But even in Poland, which has taken more refugees than anywhere else, and where helping Ukraine and Ukrainians has been seen a matter of national pride, a recent survey showed that 62% of respondents felt that supporting Ukrainian refugees had become “too costly”.
With winter approaching, the fighting looks set to continue, and large parts of Ukraine may be left without heating, prompting predictions that new refugees could arrive in Europe and find much less assistance on offer than for those who came before them.
Ada Wordsworth, a British volunteer who has been stationed in and around the Polish border town of Przemyśl since the start of the conflict, said the number of people crossing now was much lower than in the spring, and that most Ukrainians now had a destination in mind before they cross the border, having spoken to friends or family who are already abroad.
But still, every day there are people who cross with no idea where to go next, and most of the provisions that could be made for them in spring are no longer available.
“The people who are coming through now are the most traumatised people we’ve met all along, and there’s just not much to offer them. Imagine, they’ve stayed in their homes all this time, so something really bad must have happened to them for them to leave now,” said Wordsworth.
She said many people she met on the border when they arrived in Poland kept in touch, and later told her they were heading back home because they were unable to settle in Europe.
“I’ve met a lot of people who have gone back because things are too difficult in Europe, but then they arrive back in Kharkiv and realise it’s better to be poor in Europe than to be shelled in Kharkiv so they come back again,” she said.
The situation varies from country to country, but across Europe many Ukrainian refugees have struggled with access to healthcare and education. Some parents are unsure about sending their children to schools in their new countries, where their children will not be able to speak the local language, especially if they hope to return home soon.
After being asked to leave their temporary home by their hosts, Alisa’s parents plan to return to Ukraine. They do not know if their Kharkiv apartment is still intact, so for now the family will stay with friends in the western city of Lviv. They hope that there, Alisa’s mother can receive medical care for the severe anxiety attacks she has experienced since the war started.
“She has been really struggling. She has tried to get help here, but none of the doctors could really help,” said Alisa, citing the language barrier.
Alisa plans to stay in Hungary for now: she has found a place at an arts college in Budapest to continue her studies. But she hopes it will only be temporary. “I really want to go back, I miss it every day. I’m certain I will go back to Kharkiv soon,” she said.
