A secret, loosely connected network of volunteers is helping Ukrainians in Russia to flee to Europe. But the Kremlin's special services are cracking down.
To avoid the authorities, thousands of displaced Ukrainians in Russia are relying on a discreet network of unofficial volunteers — a sort of Slavic echo of the Underground Railroad — working to bring war refugees through Russia to safety in Europe.
None of the volunteers’ activities are illegal but amid Russia’s wartime laws anything that involves Ukraine and does not fit with the current pro-war patriotic fervor is sensitive and regarded unfavorably by the security services. “As long as you are here in my car and we have not reached the Finnish border, you listen only to me,” the volunteer strictly admonished her passengers as a family boarded her minivan at St Petersburg train station.At the same time it launched the war in Ukraine, Moscow tightened the few loose screws across civil society, demonstrating through dismantling opposition and human rights groups that it will not tolerate any dissent.
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