Ukraine: How crowdsourcing is rescuing people from the war zone

Finding a safe route out of Ukraine is not easy.

One of the challenges facing those looking to escape is finding one that is not under heavy bombardment by Russian forces.

The UN says more than three million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion just over three weeks ago.

So how do people find safe passage out of the country?

One way is through transportation arranged by dozens of volunteers located thousands of miles away, who liaise with other volunteers in Ukraine.

They, in turn, send real-time information about safe roads to drivers who can rescue buses full of people.

But even using this method, traveling is not without its considerable dangers.

In other words, they are crowdsourcing their way out of a war zone.

Artur Kiulian, a Ukrainian software developer living in the US, was one of many who responded to the support call from the country’s digital minister, Mykhailo Fedorov.

Artur used his skills from the tech industry to form UkraineNow, which uses volunteers and messaging apps to evacuate people from Ukraine.

“I’ve been building tech startups for the last decade,” he said. “I myself am an engineer, I have a degree in artificial intelligence systems.

“There is limited capacity. [from] the UN and the Red Cross. There is no one else to help. They are all civilians evacuating civilians.”

When he spoke to the BBC, Artur was organizing the evacuation of children with cancer from Ukraine to Poland. From there, they planned to travel to a hospital in Germany.

He and his team arranged the bus, driver, and place for them to stay across the border.

But, more importantly, they also collaborated with the safe route.

First of all, civilians in Ukraine ask for help online.

The team in the US receives applications and assigns them to buses that have been purchased or leased with the money UkraineNow raises.

The drivers then make contact with the civilians and the evacuation is organized.

The exact process and methods used are more detailed than this, but the information is not shared here to protect the organization from real world and cyber attacks.

The BBC spoke to one of the people helping on the ground.

Salam, himself a former refugee, organized a busload of people out of a city being shelled by the Russian army and across the border into Moldova.

“We have one [group] of women and children who are going to travel to a safe place,” he said. “And then they can travel from there to wherever they want.”

He says he thinks he made the trip from Ukraine to Moldova 16 or 17 times during the war.

“It’s a dangerous journey,” he said. “Everyone is nervous…anything can happen.

“The road is completely empty right now. We’re just driving and we’re far from the border, so we’re in no man’s land here.

“If they stay in their city, they will be bombed. They are running for their lives.

“We have an amazing team that is doing everything they can. There are a lot of good people on our team who are trying to help a lot of people.”

Salam explained the desperate situation of the people on his bus.

“There is a lot of sadness here,” he said. “Many women and children have left their husbands and fathers, and they don’t know if they will see each other again.

“They just said goodbye, cried and left them. You can’t imagine how difficult it is for them.”

One of the people who managed to get on Salam’s bus is Maryia – not her real name – who says she found out about the escape plan through a messaging app.

“I got this phone number from some group [on the app]he said. “I don’t remember exactly.”

He said it was recommended to him by other people in his city, which has been bombed by Russia.

For Maryia, she felt she had no choice but to leave.

“We’re going to run out of food,” he said. “We are going to be bombed in our building.

“I had some work projects, and now they’re frozen and I can’t work. Of course, I can’t get money. So I need to think about my future life.

“I need to survive.”

This is what is at stake for the evacuees, who in this case were able to escape.

Salam was able to guide the bus to the Moldovan border and safety. But there is no guarantee that future trips will be equally successful.

This is because the margins for evacuation are incredibly narrow. A previous route used to evacuate civilians was devastated by shelling just 10 hours after the bus left Ukraine.

But Salam will continue to drive regardless. “We are not going to stop before this war is over and people can go back to their homes and be safe,” he said.

“Until that, we must show our solidarity and do our best to save people.”