Ukrainian refugees are arriving in historically anti-immigrant Hungary with only what they can carry

• Ukrainian refugees are arriving in Budapest with barely more than the clothes on their back.
• Volunteers set up camps with food, supplies, and medical service for those fleeing a war zone.

BUDAPEST — When a bomb fragment struck a Kyiv woman's home on Saturday, shattering all it's windows, her family escaped with little more than what was on their backs.

Three women in the family fled the country by train — first to Slovakia and then Budapest — bringing along a male relative in a wheelchair, a six-month-old boy, a dog, and a cat.

"If we go, we take everybody," one of them, who asked only to be identified as Marina, told Insider at the Budapest Keleti Train Station. "We don't leave behind anyone."

As of Monday morning, more than 250,000 Ukrainians have made their way to Hungary — often traveling through the country to more refugee-friendly nations where they hope to find somewhere to live and work.

"We are headed towards Germany, to Munich," she said in Russian. "What we need is just quiet, peace."

Adult men are required to stay in Ukraine to fight against the Russian troops, so it's mostly women, children, and people with disabilities who are arriving at Hungary's transportation hubs and borders.

Marina told Insider that the men in the family, including her husband and two sons, remain in Ukraine and are able to call them once a day.

The situation there is not good, she said, but "they try not to talk about it."

Unlike other nations in the European Union, Hungary has laws that essentially bar most refugees from the country.

The current far-right government imposed "pushback" laws beginning in 2016, which removes anyone found in the country without a visa or residency permit.

Initially, the law was only in place in the immediate area around the Serbian and Croatian borders, but it was amended in 2017 to cover the whole country, András Lederer, senior advocacy officer for the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, told Insider.

The strict immigration policies would have prevented most Ukrainians to be able to cross the border into the country, but on February 24, the government issued a special decree that allowing Ukrainians temporary protection. This was later replaced with a similar EU-wide policy.

Individuals arriving in Hungary can seek aid directly from the government if they are granted asylum in the country.

Those just passing through, though, rely on the assistance and donations of volunteers who have assembled at Budapest's two train stations, as well as along the country's 85-mile border with Ukraine.

On Monday, hundreds of people were gathered in atriums at the Nyugati and Keleti train stations, where volunteers from churches and organizations tried to assist Ukrainians disembarking trains from the east.

Sandwiches, toiletries, clothes and other supplies were piled in boxes. Interpreters who speak Russian, Ukrainian, and Hungarian roamed the halls, trying to assist where they can.

Donated strollers and wheelchairs were available to use.

A volunteer at a medical tent told Insider that many Ukrainians have sore throats and gastrointestinal issues when they get to Budapest, so they are providing over-the-counter medicine and arranging visits with a doctor on the scene who can write prescriptions for more serious ailments.

They also supplied face masks to those who asked for them, though few people at the crowded train stations were wearing one.

"People everywhere are very, very nice and helpful," Ludlila, a woman from the Odesa region of Ukraine, said. "I haven't come across so many helpful people in all my life."

Ludlila left her home with her two daughters — 9 and 12 — five days ago traveling through Moldova, Romania, and Hungary on their way to Poland where her older children live.

Volunteers in Romania and Hungary have given them food, shelter, and tours of the cities, she said.

This reality, she said, is unimaginable.

"We left everything. We have only what we have on us and some underpants, tights and documents," she said. "Everything is left there — everything that we have collected in all our lives."

Her only wish, she said, is for the war to end quickly so she can go home to her husband.

"I love Ukraine very much. I am 42-years-old and I never was abroad," she said. "We have a saying, 'it is very nice to be guests, but it is better at home."

Marina Shafit provided translation services in Hungary.