Elena Trofimchuk has been in Romania for over a month after fleeing Ukraine. She now considers the North Railway Station in Bucharest to be a second home.

She doesn’t live there, but it’s where she spends most of her time greeting fellow Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s war and assisting them in arranging tickets, accommodations, and onward travel.

The 26-year-old stated that staying active and productive kept her mind off Russia’s shelling of her hometown of Odesa, where many of her friends still live.

“If you sit and do nothing, you can just become crazy because you’re always searching for news. It’s very hard. So here I can help people buy tickets and find accommodations. I even help Romanians in the kitchen,” Trofimchuk said.

She worked as a photographer before the commencement of the Ukrainian war.

Trofimchuk is one of the numerous orange-clad Ukrainian volunteers at the station.

Vitalii Ivanchuk, a Ukrainian volunteer, flew all the way from Sri Lanka, where he lived with his Ukrainian girlfriend, to assist migrants entering Romania.

According to the 29-year-old IT developer, many Ukrainians struggle to communicate with Romanians, and volunteers who can speak both Ukrainian and English are in high demand.

Anastasiia Haiduk, his lover, abandoned her investing career immediately after the war began and planned to volunteer at the station until the war ended and she could be reunited with her family in Ukraine.

The Romanian government is presently providing free train tickets to Ukrainian refugees arriving in Romania, which they can use to continue their journey to Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Bulgaria.

Trofimchuk was moved by the warm reception and the Romanians’ solidarity with Ukraine.

“Every Romanian person wants to help. They’re very friendly. And I was shocked about this. I’m so happy that everyone wants to help,” Trofimchuk said.

According to UNHCR data, about 5.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began on February 24.

According to UNHCR figures, the majority have gone to nations on Ukraine’s western border: more than 3 million people have fled to Poland, more than 817,000 have fled to Romania, and about 520,000 have crossed into Hungary.

Some Ukrainian volunteers join a weekly demonstration at the Russian Embassy in Bucharest on Saturday evenings, along with Ukrainian residents and Romanians.

Volunteers at the Bucharest station say they are observing an increase in arrivals from Odesa as a result of Russian missile attacks on the southern Ukrainian port city on the Black Sea coast.

Trofimchuk, on the other hand, skipped a recent protest because she anticipated people from her village to attend.

“I will stay at the station as late as I can because there might be people who need my help,” Trofimchuk said.

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