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35 Hours from Ukraine to Spain

exhibition available

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

It is 3am and Mariana and her brother Marat are fleeing Kherson (Ukraine) with their mother and three other relatives. They are traveling from Krakow to Barcelona on this charter flight, organized by the Caixabank Volunteers Association, with a hundred other Ukrainian people seeking refuge in Spain, among them several war wounded who will be treated in hospitals in Barcelona.

35 Hours from Ukraine to Spain
exhibition available

35 hours” reveals the time that separates Ukraine from Spain by bus.

In March 2021, a group of Spanish volunteers prepared in a record time a humanitarian corridor of eleven expeditions to Ukraine to bring people seeking for asylum in Spain.

Ten buses and three charter flights, brought 550 people from Ukraine, almost all women and minors, seriously injured soldiers, oncologic patients… who are fleeing the war to take refuge in Spain. Also, 75 ambulances were driven from Spain to Ukraine.

A long journey inside a cubicle with Ukrainian strangers, pets, and foreigners. 35 hours of uncertainty, full of desperation and pain for leaving their families behind, exhaustion, bewilderment … but also full of relief for feeling safe, welcomed by the affection of dozens of volunteers who As of September 2022, five million people decided to make the difficult decision to leave their country, Ukraine, because of the Russian invasion.

* The project is supported by Voluntariado Caixabank Association, Fundació Santa Clara and Sr Lucía Caram, and Mensajeros de la Paz Association along with Father Angel.
35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist
35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Medyka is the border crossing from Ukraine to Poland. A village of fewer than three thousand inhabitants is not able to absorb the entry of thousands of people. A corridor of about 100 mt has been improvised from the fence separating the border with access to the free buses that take them to Przemysl, 15 km away, where the authorities facilitate the departure by train to different points in Europe so as not to collapse the city.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

It is 3am and Mariana and her brother Marat are fleeing Kherson (Ukraine) with their mother and three other relatives. They are traveling from Krakow to Barcelona on this charter flight, organized by the Caixabank Volunteers Association, with a hundred other Ukrainian people seeking refuge in Spain, among them several war wounded who will be treated in hospitals in Barcelona.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Mikita Chernyshov, 13 years old, has traveled from Kharkov with her mother and her dog and when they land in Barcelona, they will go to Tarragona coordinated by the Red Cross. It is early morning and everyone is trying to sleep. The charter flight has left Krakow at 2am and will land in Barcelona at 4.30am. All the people on this plane, and all those that this Association is bringing on buses or other charter flights, have a guaranteed place to stay already arranged before departure, relatives or friends, a host family, residences, etc.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

The flight has left from Krakow (Poland) to Barcelona (Spain) at 2am, after many hours of waiting at the airport and all passengers are exhausted. As soon as the cabin lights were turned off, they all fell asleep despite the possible discomfort on the flight.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

At the airport in Krakow (Poland), about to board a plane that will take them to Barcelona, Oleksandra Trubych and her two sons Olekksandr and Vladislav, aged 10 and 2, have fled from Chernoballevka (Chernobyl, Ukraine) and will be taken in by a family in Oviedo.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Father Angel and Sister Lucia Caram visit the war wounded in the Military Hospital in Lviv (Ukraine).

The CaixaBank Volunteers Association, the Fundació Convent de Santa Clara with Sister Lucía Caram at the front and the Association Mensajeros de la Paz with Father Ángel, organized in record time the largest humanitarian corridor managed in 2022 between Ukraine and Spain. Ten expeditions in which more than 550 people were transferred, almost all women and children, war wounded and cancer patients fleeing the war to take refuge in our country. Their collection was planned and also their reception in Spain

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Volunteers hold signs with bus numbers to make the correct distribution of passenger who will travel to Spain to take refuge.

The bus stop in front of the train station is the meeting point for the Ukrainian people who want to go to Spain to ask for refuge, where buses will stop and volunteers will identify and accommodate the people in each bus.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

In tears, Yacha’s father says goodbye to his children, Katia and the little boy, and to Olga, his wife, on the bus that will take them to Spain. He stays in Ukraine and they, with their little dog, will go to Valencia to a friend’s house.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Irina suffers from cerebral palsy that prevents her from moving. Oksana, her mother, has had to leave her wheelchair behind because the buses that take the refugees to the border could not transport her so she has carried her in her arms for more than 90 km from Lviv, with the help of her other daughter, Sofia. Already in Przemyśl (Poland) they are about to get on one of the buses where Enric, a paediatrician, will supervise her during the whole journey and later, they will travel to Andalusia where they will be hosted by a family.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

The bus is already on its way to Spain from the Ukraine’s border full of passengers seeking refuge. The road is full of vehicles trying to go in Ukraine with medical aid, food, and all kind of possible needed goods.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Marina and the rest of the passengers, sing the Ukrainian hymn. She decided to come to Spain with her three children, leaving her husband in Ukraine who is fighting in the war, as she speaks fluent Spanish and has friends in Igualada, near Barcelona, where she and her family will be staying.

Making of ‘35 hours’

Photography and video
Ana Palacios

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

A long journey of 35 hours in which I have been able to feel their desperation and pain at leaving their families behind, their exhaustion, their bewilderment… but also their relief at feeling safe, welcomed by the affection of dozens of volunteers who have gone out of their way to make their arrival in Spain as warm and safe as possible, their rest and, above all, their gratitude.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Vira prays during the long journey on the bus to Barcelona.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Valentina travels alone. She is scared and cries often during the trip. Her daughter is waiting for her in Barcelona, upon her arrival. Even her son with his wife, who live in Switzerland are coming to Barcelona to meet her too.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Two-year-old Andryi looks out the window, fascinated by the new scenery.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Every three to four hours the buses stop at roadside rest areas to go to the toilet, smoke, stretch their legs and also for children to play. Rest areas are toured in five countries: Poland, Germany, Czech Republic, France and Spain.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

During the trip, Paulo, one of the three drivers who travel on each bus so that there are no more stops than the statutory ones, hands out candy to all the children.

Margarita entertains herself by blowing soap bubbles at the Przemyśl station, while she, her mother Yuliia and her brother Ilia are identified and searched by the volunteers before boarding the bus. Today, the three of them are staying with a family in Solsona.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Sasha and Roma are exhausted after long hours in the bus from the Ukrainian border to Barcelona, Spain. Blankets, hot meals, and sanitary materials were supplied to all passengers on their way to Spain, to have refuge.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Volunteers brought balloons, toys, coloring pencils and games to keep the children busy and have fun along the way.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

The buses are very close to the Spanish border. It is the first time all of the passangers travel this far, from Ukraine to Spain and they are fascinated with the landscape and how different life looks like.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Anastasia, 12, is excited to get to Spain to see palm trees and parrots, and when the bus stopped at a service area in France, she was thrilled to see a field of flowers.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Xoan, a volunteer paediatrician, plays with Roma at a gas station. “They get distracted and so do we. We all escape for a while from the painful reality they are living,” says the doctor.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

Svej, in the arms of his paternal grandmother and together with his maternal grandmother, travels with his mother Alla, and his aunts to Spain in the first bus convoy at the beginning of March. A family group of six people fleeing Kharkiv and heading for Valencia where they are currently working in the beauty sector and where Svej is already attending school.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

It is 6am and Katrina gets off the bus with the big teddy bear given to her by the volunteers in Premzyl, from which she has not been separated for a moment during these 35 hours of travel. The volunteer Javi Muñoz, who has been in charge of the two German Shepherds Belka and Eva, who are travelling alone, greets the girl, her brother and her mother, who are coming from Kiev, upon arrival at the Renaissance Hotel in Barcelona. Here they will rest until tomorrow and then they will leave for their final destinations in different parts of Spain. They will travel in another bus to Valencia tomorrow morning.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

It is around 6 am. The buses just arrived in Renaissance Barcelona hotel after 35 hours ride. The Ukrainian citizens who decided to go to Spain to ask for refuge are exhausted. They will now go to their rooms and rest till the following morning when they will be allocated in different cities, with relatives, host families, and/or residencies.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

It is 5am and the first buses with dozens of Ukrainian people have just arrived at the Renaissence Hotel in Barcelona after the 35-hour trip from Przemyśl, a Polish city bordering Ukraine. Others arrive by plane from Krakow. A hot dinner awaits them and a room where they can rest until the next day. In the morning, some will be picked up by relatives or host families, and others will be transferred to different points of the Spanish geography where they are waiting for them. One of the most complicated parts of these ten expeditions has been coordinating the reception, since the more than 500 people who have been transferred are guaranteed a home to stay in.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

It is breakfast time at the Catalonia Hotel in Barcelona. Marina, their mother, Anastasia, and Sasha arrived last night after 35 hours bus ride. They took a good sleep and now they are enjoying the hotel buffet before going to Igualada, in Barcelona, protected as refugees.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

After the arrival at a hotel in Barcelona a good dinner and rest, the following morning, volunteers organize the pick up by their host families who will take them to different parts of Spain, according to the request of each refugee family.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

After the arrival at a hotel in Barcelona a good dinner and rest, the following morning, volunteers organize the pick up by their host families who will take them to different parts of Spain, according to the request of each refugee family.

35 hours - Exhibit by Ana Palacios Visual Journalist

A car from Red Cross is parked In front of the Catalonia hotel, waiting to transfer the Sniadanko family who arrived last night in Spain to Bellaterra, in the Barcelona area.

‘35 hours’ exhibition. Cuatro

Photography and video
Ana Palacios

Exhibition available

If you have made it this far and you enjoyed it, you should know there is an exhibition available of this project.

Please, feel free to contact me@ana-palacios.com for further details.

Exhibitions

2023
2023
March

YO LO VI. Collective Exhibition

Photojournalists Association of Aragón. Zaragoza.

2022
2022

3.000 Km between Spain and Ukraine

All-In-One Madrid

see exhibition
2022
2022

3.000 Km between Spain and Ukraine

Torres CaixaBank. Barcelona

see exhibition
2022
2022

3.000 Km between Spain and Ukraine

Convento Santa Clara. Manresa. Barcelona

see exhibition
2022
2022

3.000 Km between Spain and Ukraine

Seminario de Tarragona

see exhibition