A NEWPORT woman with family in southern Poland has spoken of her pride in the Polish outpouring of support for the Ukrainian refugees coming over the border.

Alison Stallard, from Rogerstone, has family living in the village of Krzeczow.

She says that the support effort in the area is going through her cousin Kasia due to her position as headteacher of the local school.

“I am so proud of the Polish people who are doing whatever they can to help,” Mrs Stallard said.

“There’s a kind of hub that's been set up with everyone helping deal with donations, so that it gets to the families staying there.

“They are also going back and forth the border with supplies for people arriving but also those still in Ukraine.”

Mrs Stallard said that among those in the operation was a Ukrainian nun, originally from the port city of Odessa, who now lives in the village.

“As south-eastern Poland is so close to Ukraine, many Ukrainians already worked and lived there,” Mrs Stallard said.

“What's happening is that men are leaving their families in Poland and going back to Ukraine to defend their country and their people.

“This leaves those families frightened and also needing a lot of support so everyone is rallying round them too.”

Mrs Stallard said that requests for medical supplies were being matched in number for items such as bulletproof vests.

“It beggars belief,” she said.

She said that her cousin Kasia had described “devastated, traumatised” families arriving in villages such as Krzeczow.

“They literally left everything and typically had one bag with them,” she said.

“They had been travelling for days and are now spending their time sleeping or desperately trying to contact loved ones back home.”

However, a shining light in the darkness being faced by many fleeing Ukraine has, Mrs Stallard said, been the warmth of the welcoming Polish people.

“They’re all [the Ukrainian refugees] so grateful, but just want this to stop and to go back home,” she said.

“Ten days ago, one mother was a HR manager in a paint company in Ukraine and her daughter was doing well in school. Now they are refugees.”

Closer to home Mrs Stallard has been raising money to support those fleeing Ukraine.

She has set up an online fundraising page, which can be found at gofundme.com/f/uk-for-ukraine

Mrs Stallard explained that the outpouring of support from the people of villages such as Krzeczow was close to her heart.

“My father was in the Polish Resistance and he eventually had to decide to escape Poland after the Second World War,” she said.

“He ended up in South Wales, where he met my mother and had our family.”

Mrs Stallard explained that her father was unable to return to his home country for 30 years.

His family there were told that he'd been killed.

“He never saw his parents again. This is what war does,” Mrs Stallard said.

“This was what the iron curtain was like and we're facing this again.

“My father would be devastated to see this.”