Within days of the Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, people displaced by the war began to arrive in New York. By some estimates, hundreds of Ukrainians have already relocated here, and members of the city’s Ukrainian community are welcoming the new arrivals by opening their homes, offering legal advice and providing emotional support. 

"They have no friends, they have no relatives, they have no money, they have no right to work," said Yuliya Zolotarevsky, who works by day at Brooklyn Public Library and sees up close the grief and disorientation of the new arrivals.

These include Iryna, a 50-year-old who withheld her full name, citing the privacy and safety of her family. She's been sleeping on the sofa of a friend in Brooklyn and trying to make ends meet by cooking borscht and cleaning homes while worrying about the safety of her husband and their 28-year-old son, who remain in Ukraine.

"It’s scary to end up in a situation like this where we don’t know what's going to happen tomorrow," she said. "Are you going to be alive? Will your closest people be alive?"