Ukraine War: Grant De-St-Croix and Yasha cryptocurrency have raised funds to help refugees

Grant de-St-Croix from Pontnewydd said he felt frustrated sitting at home watching events unfold on the news and wanted to do something constructive.

The 43-year-old has travelled to Warsaw to help begin distrubuting funds raised via a cryptocurrency he is a member of.

When Russian forces invaded Ukraine, members of the organisation which runs the Yasha crypto token decided to create a new token specifically to raise money for the relief effort. So far, the Paz or World Peace token has raised £150,000. 

"We managed to raise that £150,000 within 24 hours," Mr de-St-Croix told the Argus' sister site The National. "That fundraising is ongoing and it'll continue. So that's a major positive and shows you the power crypto has to get things moving quickly."

Scenes at the station in Warsaw

Grant de-St-Croix helping at the station in Warsaw

"But I was sitting down watching the news and feeling frustrated at not being able to do more. So then I and the CEO, Joe Poareo, who's from the States, decided we'd travel to Poland, meet up and give some physical help, but also to see how our fundraising efforts could be most effectively used. We've used our own money to come here."

So far, the pair have concentrated their efforts on helping people arriving at the main train stations in Warsaw, which Mr de-St-Croix describes as "unreal". 

Inside one of the relief tents in Warsaw

"After speaking with a contact who was helping with relief on the Polish border, he advised us that it would be more beneficial if we stayed in Warsaw because there are plenty of supplies on the border at the moment but the problem is in other parts of Poland where people are arriving on trains," he said. 

"They're coming into the central station in Warsaw and they have no money and they have to somehow get sorted there. So we're at the central station and the scenes are unreal. There are people everywhere... women, kids sleeping on the floor and on benches. It's terrible. 

"The Polish volunteers are very well organised and they are doing their best under really difficult circumstances but you can see how hard it is on everyone."

As people are arriving and leaving the station in Warsaw, the aid workers' supplies have been dwindling, so both Mr de-St-Croix and Mr Poareo have been going back and forth to supermarkets in order to try to restock volunteers with what they need.

They asked for items such as toothpaste, bottled water, wet wipes, baby food and hand cream.

Grant fetches supplies for Ukrainian refugees in a Polish supermarket

Aid workers asked for a range of supplies, including wet wipes, bottled water and fruit

"We've been over to a train station in the west of the city as well, which also has a bus station, so there's a huge volume of people arriving there all the time," said Mr de-St-Croix. 

"We noticed that everyone was sleeping on the floor or on these thin mats so we went to a big supermarket and stocked up on airbeds and pumps to go with them. At least they're not sleeping on cold floors then."

Grant pumps up an airbed in the station in Warsaw

"What strikes you when you're here is that all this is being run by ordinary people, and their good will," Mr de-St-Croix added.

"We haven't seen any of these big organisations anywhere so far. It's just people... volunteers running these food tents out of the goodness of their hearts.

"Being on the ground looks massively different to what you see on the news."

The British embassy has now supplied the pair with a list of verified charities who are helping with the aid effort in Ukraine. 

Both men are expected to travel home to Wales and the USA respectively on Thursday. From there they will help co-ordinate the distribution of the £150,000 to the organisations they have identified which need the most help. But neither are ruling out returning to help in Poland once more. 

"I've made a decent amound of money off crypto so why wouldn't I help other people? I have the ability to do that so that's what I'm going to do," Mr de-St-Croix said.

"When I saw this kicking off, I was in disbelief. And it's all because of some 70-year-old dinosaur in Russia. We can do better as people, surely.

"This isn't the world I want to see."

• This article originally appeared on our sister site The National.