Tikva, which cares for homeless, abandoned and abused Jewish children, evacuated more than 1,200 people from Ukraine.
A British aid worker has evacuated more than 1,200 refugees, including some 270 orphans, from Ukraine to Romania since the start of the war.
Hundreds of Jewish children from Tikva – an orphanage school in the port city of Odessa – were crammed into buses when the first Russian bombs started falling in the country, leaving everything behind.
Jeremy Posen, who has worked as the chief financial officer for the charity for the last three years in the Black Sea hub, boarded the convoy of buses to western Ukraine and spent more than 31 hours on the road due to blockages and military checks.
The group then remained in a rural hotel in the western part of the country for 10 days before evacuations to Romania began.
Each journey and border crossing was not only ‘fraught and extremely draining’ but a ‘logistical nightmare’, which traumatised the children, Mr Posen told Metro.co.uk.
‘Although we tried to protect and shield the children as much as possible and to “pretend” we were going on an adventure, like when we go to summer camp, the children are extremely perceptive’, the north Londoner, said.
‘They obviously picked up on the tension and despair of the adults. The journey was very harrowing.
‘We passed virtually endless convoys of military hardware and personnel, heard and witnessed shelling.
‘We tried to distract the children from the almost constant air raid sirens and were stopped and boarded by armed police and military personnel every hour or so.’
When shelling first started in Odessa in the early hours of February 24, Tikva’s team, which cares for homeless, abandoned and abused Jewish children, gathered in the charity’s command centre.
Since December, they had been preparing for a worst-case scenario if Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine but no one actually believed it will happen.
They stocked up on food, water, fuel, sleeping bags and medication, as well as cash reserves.
An international security firm was hired, with a team of consultants flying to the country to help navigate the crisis.
Buses and drivers loaded with food supplies were also on standby. But paperwork was the biggest setback.
Mr Posen said: ‘Around 75 – 80% of the children in our care and the families in our community had issues with their paperwork and documents, which meant that under normal circumstances they would not be able to leave the country.
‘They either had no passports or expired passports, or nationalities that would require visas, only photocopies of documents, etc.
‘As such, we initially focused on the 20% or so who could relatively easily leave the country, and we started sending out buses to the Moldovan border.
‘Throughout the day we managed to send five buses across the border, and on the Moldovan side they were met by our representatives who took them to a prearranged shelter.
‘The border crossing itself was quite chaotic, and there were queues of over eight or nine hours.
‘By the time the last of those buses reached the border, martial law had been declared and conscription aged men were turned back from the border and had to return to Odessa, arriving back in the city just before the 11pm curfew.’
Each border crossing took hours on end due to paperwork issues, meaning countless calls to governmental departments, foreign embassies and guardians.
Mr Posen remembered that each bus journey took on average 2.5 hours to get through the Ukrainian border checks and then another 2.5 hours to go through similar ones in Romania.
Despite the difficulties, all the children from Tikva’s orphanages and those of their community members have been evacuated to Neptun, a summer resort on the Romanian seacoast.
The charity also set up a medical clinic in the Balkan country, with a doctor and two nurses from the UK running it.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, the country has suffered widespread damages and loss of life amid a major bombing campaign.
Millions of people have fled, as Ukrainian cities face shortages of food, water, heat, and medicine - with thousands of British people opening up their homes to Ukrainian refugees.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn't shown any signs of calling off the attack anytime soon, despite reports that he is 'growing paranoid'.
Mr Posen added: ‘We continue to evacuate people from Odessa every day, responding to anyone who contacts us without any questions asked.
‘Those who are affiliated with our community are then brought to join us in Romania.
‘The others we are evacuating are taken to Moldova where we have separate facilities, being run in tandem with a local organisation.’
Despite the efforts of non-profits like Tikva, many children are still stuck in war-torn Ukraine because of such paperwork problems.
Earlier today, a group of 50 orphans who were promised refuge in the UK were stopped from leaving Poland after a passport delay blocked their flight.
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