Inside a theatre in Ukraine providing refuge to families fleeing war

Centre-stage, a little girl is curled up on a makeshift bed made out of theatre props, having travelled hundreds of miles across Ukraine to flee a war that is worsening by the minute.

In the stalls, chairs have been cleared to make way for sleeping refugees. More rest in the circle and on the balcony.

This month, the Les Kurbas theatre – one of the best-loved and most avant-garde playhouses in Ukraine’s western city of Lviv – was supposed to be running a busy winter schedule.

But after Russia invaded Ukraine six days ago, cast members and crew have turned it into a camp for the displaced.

At least 667,000 people have fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries since the invasion, a number that the UN predicts could rise to 4 million if the conflict deteriorates further, as it braces for “Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century”.

It comes as The Independent launches a campaign, Refugees Welcome, to urge the British government to do more to save lives and protect families.

Sitting on a bed made out of staging blocks with his stepmother and 11-year-old sister in the theatre-turned-shelter, Alexander recalls how they fled Kyiv by train after being forced to leave behind his mother, aunt and cousins in a village outside of the capital.

“Something exploded just 400 metres away from us as we tried to board the train from Kyiv, it was a literal nightmare,” the 24-year-old tells The Independent, exhausted and shaken.

“We got to Lviv and wandered around until we saw a sign for this shelter and so came here,” added Alexander, who only gave his first name.

The wholesaler of petroleum products plans to put his stepmother and sister on a train to Poland – the border is some 44 miles away from Lviv – before also trying to help his other female relatives leave the country.

Alexander himself cannot join them because Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has banned men between the ages of 18-60 from leaving the country “in order to ensure the defence of the state”. He is aware that he may end up separated from his family indefinitely.

“We need help from the outside world, from the UK,” he adds. “We need you to help us.”

The Independent has set up a petition calling on the UK government to be at the forefront of the international community offering aid and support to those in Ukraine. To sign the petition click here.

The Independent is also raising money for the people of Ukraine – if you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

On Tuesday, Russia continued its relentless strikes on Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv and other civilian sites in what Mr Zelensky condemned as a blatant campaign of terror by Moscow.

“Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget,” the president said in an emotional address to the European parliament where he asked for immediate EU membership.

Meanwhile, a huge convoy of hundreds of Russian tanks and other vehicles advanced on Kyiv while the Kremlin warned residents to leave their homes as it announced it was planning to strike targets in the capital. Shortly after the warning, five people were reported to have been killed in a Russian airstrike that damaged a TV tower in the city.

As the war intensifies, so does the number of people fleeing their homes across the country.

Many of those heading to the borders are passing through Lviv and so community centres, hospitals, homes, and even theatres are opening their doors to allow them to take refuge.

In Les Kurbas theatre, just one of several sites in the city that The Independent visited, the basement and green room have been turned into makeshift bomb shelters, where everybody runs to when the air raid sirens are activated.

“My family is trapped in Kharkiv under bombing in the east, we can’t get them out. And so for me this is my way to take my mind off it, and help,” says Natalia Rybka-Parkhomenko, who is a lead actor at the theatre and a popular Ukrainian folk singer. Together with the rest of the cast, she has been manning the makeshift shelter since the start of the war six days ago.

“The only thing we could do is turn the stage blocks into beds and welcome people from all over the country. What else can we do?”

Behind her, 43-year-old Maxim sits with his children and Sonic the Hedgehog movies on TV: a brief respite following their two-day journey from Dnipro in the east.

He too found the shelter by chance and is coming to terms with the fact he will have to bid goodbye to his children at the station, as like Alexander, he is not allowed to leave Ukraine.

“I try not to think about being separated from my children,” he says quietly as his boys begin to watch a Disney film.

“I’m just trying to do the best I can with everything without panicking.”

Alexander, meanwhile, comforts his sister who is playing on her iPad on a bed by the main stage.

“My message to the world is to help us win this war,” he says defiantly.

“I hope that all people killed in the Russian attacks didn’t die for nothing, that we can fight for our freedom.”

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here.