Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, individuals have fled the nation, making it Europe’s worst refugee disaster since World War II. In looking for shelter in neighboring nations like Romania, some Ukrainian refugees have turned to an surprising place for assist: Tinder.

recounts the story of 1 such particular person, Anastasia Tischchenko. She and her pal Natalia Masechko posted their plight to the courting app after they fled their dwelling of Ivano-Frankivsk, a metropolis of roughly 230,000 positioned in western Ukraine, south of Lviv.

“I’m thinking there are a lot of honest people in the world, and some of them are on Tinder,” Tischchenko instructed The Times. She was proper. Several individuals swiped proper on her profile to supply assist, together with one man who put Tischchenko and Masechko in contact with a pal of a pal of a pal who discovered a monastery the 2 may sleep in whereas in Siret, a Romanian metropolis on the southern border of Ukraine. “It was very inspiring,” she mentioned. After their keep in Siret, Tischchenko traveled to Poland, whereas her pal Masechko stayed in Romania to assist the following wave of refugees.

Like the warfare itself, the refugee disaster has hit a vital inflection level in current days. On Friday, officers in Poland’s two largest cities, Warsaw and Krakow, to accommodate all of the individuals arriving within the wake of the battle. Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski warned the “situation is getting more and more difficult every day.” The UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees has warned that as many as 4 million individuals may flee Ukraine because of the warfare.