Wladimir cradles his youngest son explaining there is nowhere for him and his family to stay.
It’s getting late and night fell quite some time ago. They’ve arrived from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv – Wladimir Zubkov, his wife Dayna and children Semen 14, Olga, nine, and five-year-old Vsevolod.
Wladimir is spectacularly calm and stoic for a man with the responsibility of a big family who left Kharkiv to the sound of explosions and gunfire and must now find them somewhere to sleep.
Three days after leaving their home, they’re in a packed railway station in the centre of Warsaw.
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His three children look completely shattered
The children look completely shattered. There’s a whine from a small pet case – signalling the family’s dog isn’t too happy either.
I ask Wladimir if they’ve found anywhere to stay tonight. “No,” he says, adding: “We need it very much this.”
Wladimir Zubkov and his family are helped by volunteers
Volunteers have spontaneously set up a system at the station where the refugees register their names and the number of people in their group and they’re put together with Polish people who’ve offered to take people in.
But for a couple of hours, Wladimir has waited whilst nothing has come up.
Other groups in Warsaw have already told us that offers are “drying up”.
The railway station in the centre of Warsaw is packed
In the absence of any other options, a volunteer says she will take them in at the end of her shift but warns that her flat is small.
Volunteer Ewa Gugala says: “What can I tell you.
“As you see it’s tragic for me. There are hundreds of people, the organisation is very poor here and it works only thanks to volunteers like myself.”
Then someone rushes over in a fluorescent jacket to announce a flat has been found.
Wladimir is elated – but in his calm way. He makes a V sign towards us smiling.
The stoicism has turned to optimism that out of this hell of war, the first step towards a roof over their heads, sanctuary and proper sleep, has begun.
The furniture maker is allowed to leave Ukraine with his family because men with three children are exempt from joining the war effort.
But almost all of the refugees fleeing Ukraine are women and children in what is the biggest refuge crisis in Europe since World War Two.
And that is seriously worrying the volunteers and wider authorities who are concerned the refugees’ vulnerability will be taken advantage of.
There’s a huge group of Roma Ukrainians also waiting to be found accommodation
There’s a huge group of Roma Ukrainians also waiting to be found accommodation. They all want to stay together so it’s not an easy fix.
In the group, there is one man, 35 children and 11 women.
The children play excitedly in spite of the late hour.
But as we film, two men go over to them. They have no reason to talk to the children.
A volunteer is suspicious of their intentions. A station guard goes over and then the men leave.
Volunteer Dariusz Piotr says: ‘Of course there is a danger that someone bad will try to use the situations’
Another volunteer, Dariusz Piotr, says: “Of course there is a danger that someone bad will try to use the situations.
“We are doing everything possible to be sensitive to help and ask and eliminate possible dangerous.”
Upstairs a quieter mood is starting to shroud the first floor of the station as people bed down for the night – sleeping rough because they have nowhere to go.
Some will be waiting for early morning trains but others told us they’re in limbo.
Svetlana arrived with her mother Lydia (below)
Outside it’s still busy. The refugees just keep on coming – including Svetlana who arrived with her mother Lydia, who was born in 1945 when World War Two ended.
Svetlana is angry, emotional but also determined that ‘one man’ who orchestrated this war won’t triumph.
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Gesturing to her mother, who stands patiently waiting with her dogs, she says: “Mom don’t know war. Now she knows war. Now momma have war.”