We created the “Shelter for Ukraine” group at the beginning of the invasion to connect Ukrainian users to people all over who are willing to offer shelter. Two ROMEOs Lesha and Artur began sharing their story to this group, inspiring a series of posts on our blog.

Last week, we posted a diary from our two ROMEO users, titled Ukraine through Lesha and Artur’s Eyes.

Our last entry saw Lesha and Artur seeking shelter at a woman’s house while they were on their journey. As promised, we are back with more updates.

Wednesday, March 9th 2022 - 04:34

Good morning, yes yes, now I've been writing good morning for the last couple of days! Because it's relatively good. Today we have a long way ahead, our goal is Khmelnitsky, it is approximately 450 kilometers, it will be very hard, that's why we wake up so early. Hope everything goes well!

09:13

Gas stations are empty everywhere on the highway, I had to get away from the route and drive into the city of Uman in search of gasoline, we didn’t get enough sleep, for the second night in a row Artur and I dream of war, shots and explosions, very tired and I want to sleep, but I need to move on.

Thursday, March 10th 2022 - 06:03

A little more about yesterday's terribly crazy day, about a hard evening, about a terrible night, about a stupid morning. Almost no one slept, didn’t eat, it’s been completely fucked up since yesterday morning until now, I’m morally exhausted like everyone here, but now also physically there is also very little strength.

Everything would be fine if we didn’t have to stand in a traffic jam for more than two hours. Everything would be fine if we could have rented a place to sleep, but this is not possible and we were in some kind of shelter for refugees, where we can only go outside at 8 o'clock in the morning, they told us to leave the dogs in the car. It's just complete fucked up and my head hurts terribly in the morning.

20:05

Finding lodging for even one fucking night is a complete bummer. So far, we are standing on the roadside trying to find something, asking people, but for some reason, unfortunately, the majority refuses. One woman should come here in half an hour and maybe let us stay in her old house where there is nobody now for one night. But I'm not sure…

21:40

Oh my God, thank you that the world is not without good people. Everywhere was full of people, I think we called several hundred phone numbers and it was useless. There were 3 which had rooms, but it's not a man, but a bitch, because the price was $1500 per month, $3000 and $5000 per month. People are divided into two types, those who profit from the misfortune of others and those who try to help. This woman helped for free, but we want leave some money for her. We stopped about 200 kilometers from Uzhhorod. We need to find a place where we can stay for at least a week to rest and decide what to do next. Thank you for helping information, support, cheer, and stay here with us!!! Today was a very hard day again. There is not enough strength and nerves, conflicts appear between each other when something does not work out and there are misunderstandings…

22:04

It's very cold in the house, but it's better than outside and we have a bed, but we decided to sleep in a jacket. Good night!!!

Friday, March 11th 2022 - 07:44

Good morning, very very cold but good morning. We all slept in outerwear and still very cold, but on the bed and inside the house I think it's not so bad and it’s safe!

Yesterday we were looking for accommodation in Ivano Frankivsk, we did not find anything, and in the evening we left for nowhere, and accidentally found this place where we slept. Today, rockets arrived in Ivano Frankivsk and there was an airstrike!!!
Sometimes it seems to me that God is protecting us🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

12:59

The car didn’t start in the morning, we tried to do grocery shopping and we need to buy some medicines and warm clothes. The problem with the clutch increased, it seems that we need to change the cable - and the battery is dead, we found where to put the battery on charge, called a taxi and go to the city in five kilometers from the place where we stopped, eat, skimp, and take a walk.

16:48

We bought the necessary medicines, ate delicious pizza, bought warm socks (hooray hooray), took a walk and changed the situation a bit, but still sometimes it is heated between us. Guys, I want to thank those who helped recently, because thanks to this we can do something here now to stay safe, whoever helped knows who I'm talking about. Also many thanks to a few people who helped when we first decided to run away to the west, if not for you then we simply would not have been able to do it. Thanks to those who provide moral support every day, and many thanks to those who motivated me to make this trip to the west, without you this would not have happened. Thanks to all those whose heart goes through this test with us!!! We love you and are very grateful for this, sometimes almost to tears…

19:46

We just found out that now there is a Russian checkpoint two kilometers from our house, maybe we didn’t leave in vain… there is still no electricity there… but I have tears in my eyes when I think that we will not finish the construction of the pool, which we started last year, we won’t build the gazebo with barbecue that we dreamed about… we won’t finish the garden and see how the plants that we planted over these two years continue to grow… I want to cry and sometimes I want to return…

Saturday, March 12th 2022 - 12:26

Мы нашли хороший дом в аренду, но он в 160 километров от нас. Мы выехали туда сейчас, но кажется этот человек пытался просто выманить с нас предоплату, потому что мы отказались и он сразу начал съезжать с темы. Но мы надеемся.
[We found a nice house to rent, but it's 160 kilometers away. We went there now, but it seems this man was just trying to get us to pay upfront because we refused and he immediately started moving off the subject. But we're hopeful.]

14:20

Damn this is complete bullshit. I can't find anything here. This cretin no longer picks up the phone, he just wanted to trick us into sending us an advance payment for rent, there are no places everywhere, everywhere is full of people. Urgently we need to find something to rent and live at least a little like normal people and not like homeless people, I'm tired, very tired. Between us, because of nerves and failures, psychos and conflict situations begin, hands are starting to drop from a losing streak.

16:57

Пиздец, машина сломанна, она не заводилась, долго пытались что то сделать, потом открутили свечи зажигания и прочистили их и завелась но работает не корректно едет максимум со скоростью 30 километров в час. Уже темнеет мы в горах и идти не куда, спрашивал у людей никто не принимает нас и не может помочь с ночёвкой, везде все занято.
[Fuck, the car is broken, it would not start, long tried to do something, then unscrewed the spark plugs and cleaned them and started but does not work correctly goes maximum speed of 30 kilometers per hour. It is getting dark, we are in the mountains and go nowhere, asking people no one takes us and can not help with the overnight, everywhere is busy.]

20:30

I just don’t know what to write, firstly, it seems to me that I am repeating myself in the story, secondly, sometimes it seems to me that this is not interesting, thirdly, I have no strength, almost two weeks in the basement, a week on the road, there was not one day and night that I could rest completely. I want to convey all the emotions, I just want to scream, drink 0.5 vodka in one gulp and hang myself, today the day is even harder, the car is broken, it doesn’t drive anymore, there is nowhere to go, I asked everywhere, tried to find it everywhere, but no one takes us with dogs or full of people. We found a place on the floor at school just now. Where to go tomorrow I don't know - what to do with the car I don't know - what to do with life I don't know.

I just want to go home, because of this, tears begin

Sunday, March 13th 2022 - 06:36

Morning is not good, morning is shit! The mood shit, the car is broken, nowhere to go, what to do next I don't know.

08:24

Guys, we found a person who sells a car and it’s not expensive, it's a good car. But we don’t have that much money so we agreed with him that we give away the old broken car. We also collected all the money which we had from help from friends, also my brother took out a small loan. In an hour, maybe he will come here and we will buy a car and be on wheels again, but I don’t know where to go next. We need to find a place where we can stay temporarily. I don’t know if this is the right decision or not.

Now we will have absolutely no money, Arthur's mother has a debt for an old car and my brother will have a debt for a new one, I don't know if this is the right thing to do or not. But it's better than sitting and doing nothing.

14:55

We made it, now we're back on wheels and we can move on but I don't know where.

19:11

We found a house as cheap as possible here, there are no communications, but it could be some kind of place where we can stay until the borders are open.

20:57

Now every day is a new life. I want to go home, we really want to go home. We were waiting for this spring and dreamed when winter would end, but I did not think that spring would bring so much sadness. Every moment and every hour I I understand more how I miss my home and how little I appreciated what we had there… 😔😔😔