The underground networks of Russians helping Ukrainian refugees

FILE PHOTO: Maria Belkina and her partner Kirill Zhivoi, co-founders of Volunteers Tbilisi, a group which helps refugees from Ukraine, stick a sign with the Ukrainian flag onto a vehicle in Tbilisi, Georgia April 15, 2022. Maria Belkina/Handout via REUTERS

TBILISI (Reuters) - Ukrainian refugees who reluctantly find themselves under Moscow’s rule are receiving help from an unlikely quarter: networks of Russian volunteers helping those displaced by the war to leave Russia.

When Bogdan Goncharov, his wife and 7-year-old daughter fled the shelling in their hometown of Mariupol in mid-March, they ended up in Russian-controlled territory in south eastern Ukraine. Fearful of being transported thousands of kilometres away after hearing other refugees were sent to Siberia, Goncharov said he contacted a Russian volunteer who arranged transport for them across Russia to the Estonian border.