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Ask HN: How are you helping employees affected by the war in Ukraine?
Like many companies we have employees affected by the the violence in Ukraine. What are others doing to help their employees?
- orangesite 5y agoJust woke up to the news, we've got an engineer in Kyiv. He wants to get out but, at this stage, no one even knows which borders are open.
- QuikAccount 5y agoCreated an account real quick to post this. I would have him look into getting to Romania. They said they will take about 500k refugees from Ukraine. From Romania he might be able to get to the US or wherever your company is.
- throwawaymen 5y agoSlovakian prime minister announced that anybody running from the war will be allowed to cross our borders. https://spectator.sme.sk/c/22848160/slovakia-will-let-everybody-fleeing-ukraine-in.html https://spectator.sme.sk/c/22848160/slovakia-will-let-everyb...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- smt88 5y agoI have an employee who has 4 kids and a sick wife. We already pay him a good US-level salary, but I'd be happy to pay a few extra tens of thousands to help them immigrate. I don't even know where to start. Can they get across a border? Can they board a plane? How do I help? I'm terrified and sad for everyone there.
- lopis 5y agoUkrainian air space is closed at the moment. He would have to leave the country by land first.
- smt88 5y agoThat's what I was thinking. He's just a bit southwest of Kyiv, so it might be impossible to get all the way to a safe border soon. I'm sure there are lots of people escaping now.
- dan_hawkins 5y agoTrain to Lviv, take a cab, cross the border to Rzeszow (Ukrainians are allowed to enter EU for 90 days,) take a train to Warsaw, fly wherever you want.
- smt88 5y agoThat is extremely helpful. Thank you.
- drakonka 5y agoRight now, many feel it is too late to leave, and that it is safer to stay than to leave. The roads are blocked, lines for fuel are huge (and fuel is running out). I wish my family had left sooner.
- smt88 5y agoThat's helpful. It's hard to know from here which decisions are better or worse. I'm sorry to hear about your family and hope that they stay safe. You must be absolutely wracked with anxiety. I am too, and I don't even have any family there.
- hodgesrm 5y agoIdeas: (1) Help them locate countries that they can travel to. (2) Arrange local accommodations in hotels/apartments so they have a place to stay when they arrive. (3) If you have not done so already, get a Brex virtual credit card in their name that they can use to pay expenses once they are out. Paypal is another way to move funds that does not require a bank account. There are many others.
- smt88 5y agoThey are going to try to get to Romania or Poland. I have contacted an immigration lawyer to see if we can sponsor them and bring them to the US. > If you have not done so already, get a Brex virtual credit card in their name that they can use to pay expenses once they are out. Paypal is another way to move funds that does not require a bank account. There are many others. This is interesting. Why do you recommend this? Because you expect Putin to shut down their banking infrastructure?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- hodgesrm 5y agoWe are not confident that it will be possible to get money out of Ukrainian banks. (Due to attacks physical and virtual on infrastructure.) Edited: added sentence
- meehow 5y agoBorders are open and they can cross without any visa. Russia is spreading some fake news about closed borders. There is a list of reception points in Poland (some are walking distance from the border) in case they have problems with finding accommodation: https://www.gov.pl/web/udsc/ukraina-en https://www.gov.pl/web/udsc/ukraina-en (English) https://www.gov.pl/web/udsc/ukraina---ua https://www.gov.pl/web/udsc/ukraina---ua (Ukrainian) [edit] looks like Ukraine doesn't allow men aged 18-60 to leave the country: https://espreso-tv.translate.goog/cholovikam-gromadyanam-ukraini-18-60-rokiv-ne-dozvolyaetsya-pokidati-krainu-kerivnik-lvivskoi-mitnitsi?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en https://espreso-tv.translate.goog/cholovikam-gromadyanam-ukr...
- rdtwo 5y agoHonestly men of fighting age are probably better off going through Russian controlled points than Ukrainian as terrible as that sounds Russians are most likely to let people leave so they don’t have to fight them later
- hodgesrm 5y agoPlease post notes if your company has solutions. Ukrainian citizens can travel to Schengen region countries in the EU without a visa for up to 90 days. [1] Regulations related to COVID are still evolving. This complicates travel for unvaccinated employees and their families. [2] [1] https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/who-needs-schengen-visa/ https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/who-needs-schengen-visa/ [2] https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/eu-lifts-non-essential-travel-ban-for-vaccinated-recovered-travellers-from-third-countries-from-march-1/ https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/eu-lifts-non-essential...
- meehow 5y agoJust published exempt from the quarantine obligation: https://twitter.com/a_niedzielski/status/1496963713676595201 https://twitter.com/a_niedzielski/status/1496963713676595201
- toomuchtodo 5y agoIreland is waiving visa requirements to Ukrainians who can get there. Canada is also accepting refugees from Ukraine. I have heard unconfirmed rumors Georgia is accepting folks as well, but have not been able to substantiate yet.
- sydthrowaway 5y ago
- orangesite 5y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30450336 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30450336
- etewiah 5y agoSo why is this not on the front page. I don't quite understand.
- baybal2 5y ago
- dang 5y agoThe problem with your account is that you break the site guidelines ( https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). I've spent many hours on many emails for years now trying to explain this to you, and have even personally defended you when other users unfairly attacked you. You've not only not fixed the problem but are now posting smears. That's not helping. I know it's frustrating to be rate limited or get moderated, but carrying on like this is not ok. There are many other users who need our help, and many have had to wait while we were busy trying to help you. At some point one loses the will to continue and just has to move on. The issue isn't politics in general, nor which politics you hold. Plenty of HN users with different politics manage to post within the site guidelines. But we do rate-limit and eventually ban accounts that fulminate and flame, because those things destroy what HN is supposed to be for. We want curious conversation here. If anyone wants to understand how we think about political topics and HN moderation, follow the explanations that are linked to here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=political%20overlap%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... If you familiarize yourself with that material and still have a question that isn't addressed there, I'd be happy to help if you email your question to hn@ycombinator.com.
- connordoner 5y ago> "Created an account real quick to post this. I would have him look into getting to Romania. They said they will take about 500k refugees from Ukraine. From Romania he might be able to get to the US or wherever your company is." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30450738 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30450738
- marviio 5y agoI wonder how companies like Jetbrains will function. HQ in Czech Republic but majority of developers in Russia, I believe. Might be hard to pay developers without SWIFT access.
- baremetal 5y agoeurope cant block russian swift access, or they wont be able to get money invested in russia back out.
- actfrench 5y agoI reached out to an independent contractor who I used to work with on Upwork many years ago. It meant so much to her that I simply inquired to see how she was and if there was anything I could do to help. Often people feel so abandoned. She told me that she is trying to cross the Polish border, but it is a huge traffic jam and a total stand still. "It’s crazy here, we are trying to cross the border with Poland, but so many people are here, cars are just standing. Thank you for your warm words, I will update if I make it to Poland with my husband and two kids"
- actfrench 5y agoDoes anyone know where is the best place to donate for relief efforts? Or is it better just to wire money to our friends who we know?
- actfrench 5y agoThis was just posted in a reliable parent group I'm in (in San Francisco). I don't know about the organizations but it seems like a good starting point. RUSSIA-UKRAINE CRISIS/WAR: INFO AND WAYS TO HELP https://ukrainewar.carrd.co/?fbclid=IwAR0v8CBtrrSj1dschsCPik5e4w1n9tiJVKc4rcFIlxZSp-HmnFQZ7SduEoI https://ukrainewar.carrd.co/?fbclid=IwAR0v8CBtrrSj1dschsCPik...
- guilhas 5y agoAlso what can we do to help affected in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Somalia, Ethiopia...
- erklik 5y agoUS Military Dogs were given seats on planes, while Afghans were hanging on the outside of those same planes and then eventually fell to their deaths. [1] The US provides lots and lots of weapons to Saudi Arabia, who are artificially creating a famine in Yemen [3] and have used the US's provided weapons to deliberately attack MSF Hospitals [2]. There is no mass outrage. No trending tweets. No real pressure at all on the US administration for either of those things. Afghanistan was a thing for a few days, but eventually everyone started blaming the poor civilians instead. Seems clear to me that you have to be a certain demographic to get sympathy from the Internet in the West. 1. https://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/afghanistan-us-military-dogs-reportedly-given-seats-on-evacuation-flights/news-story/3366a195b919bc463276157034f6d6fb https://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/afghanistan-us-mil... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_in_Yemen_(2016%E2%80%93present)#Saudi_Arabian-led_intervention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_in_Yemen_(2016%E2%80%93... 3. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/09/yemen-evidence-indicates-us-made-bomb-was-used-in-attack-on-msf-hospital/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/09/yemen-evidenc...
- guilhas 5y agoThere is outrage. But when the conversion turns that way posts are flagged as too political