At a family home in Warsaw, Marta Andrzejuk and Lila Kalugina talk and laugh together like a mother and daughter.
Barely a fortnight ago, they didn't know each other.
The two women come from different countries and can't speak each other's native language.
They would never have met if it weren't for the war that broke out next door. Now they are living together like family.
"I only met Lila when she came to my house," says Marta, who lives in Poland.
When Russian forces first invaded Ukraine, Lila fled her hometown at Kupriansk with her boyfriend and nine-year-old son Gleb.
They headed west, stopping at Kharkiv and Lutsk, but Russian attacks forced them to keep moving.
"The war was just behind our back, getting closer all the time. We heard the bombing alarms every day," she says.
It took the family eight days to reach the Polish-Ukraine border crossing in Rava-Ruska. They had never been to the country, and Lila had no idea where the family would stay.
Polish family open up their homes and hearts
Five hours from the border crossing, Marta and her husband of 27 years, Mariusz, were watching the events unfolding next door with horror.
The couple's son had heard of Lila and Gleb's plight through a friend and asked his parents to help.
Desperate to help and with their children all grown up, Marta and Mariusz offered to take them into their own home for as long as they needed.
"There is no time limit for them to leave," Marta says.
"I've been helping Lila find a job here. They can stay here as long as they want."
The Polish couple had two spare rooms since their son and daughter had both moved out of home.
"My house was always full of people, full of children," she tells the ABC.
"And I miss it. I couldn't close the door on someone who needs my help."
Their Warsaw home has become a refuge for Lila's family as they map out a new life far from their hometown of Kupriansk.
Marta and Lila can talk to each other in Russian – the only language they can both speak.
For all their differences, the two women get along famously. Even her son Gleb has settled in well.
Lila says she has managed to shield her son from any knowledge of the war since they fled Ukraine.
"He hasn't seen the war. He never saw the news [on television] and I'm happy about that."
The Warsaw couple is part of a huge grassroots movement that has sprung up all over Poland – and indeed, Europe – to help Ukrainians fleeing the war.
'Poland does for Ukraine what nobody did for Poland'
The massive influx of refugees has seen a national outpouring of generosity, as families and individuals offer accommodation, transport, food, clothing or money.
More than 3 million Ukrainians have fled their homeland since the war began on February 24, in the fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II.
Just over 60 per cent have gone to Poland, according to data from the United Nations.
Dozens of Facebook groups have opened in towns and cities across Poland with around 1 million members between them, offering support to Ukrainians arriving in Poland.
Some have compared the Ukrainians' experience under Russian attacks with the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland at the start of World War II.
"Today Poland does for Ukraine what nobody did for Poland in 1939," one user wrote in a post.
"I haven't been as proud of my compatriots in a long time as I am today!" another wrote.
"I feel like everyone is helping! Grandparents, parents, friends, neighbours, shop waiters — all stepped in to help! We have UNITY in a country that seemed divided forever."
The Facebook groups are full of stories similar to that of Lila's family — of Poles offering accommodation and Ukrainian families looking for jobs or somewhere to stay.
However, one Polish man fears that with Ukrainian refugee numbers still rising, accommodation is already running out and volunteers are overwhelmed.
"The scale is huge," Grzegorz Patyk says.
Mr Patyk, who with friends has helped to transport dozens of refugees from border crossings, says he believes his city of Krakow has run out of accommodation.
"There is no space there anymore," he says.
Krakow authorities said the city still had temporary beds available but more permanent spaces were gone.
Accusations of double standards over refugee intake
Poland has now passed a law offering families or individuals 40 zloty a day (roughly $13) for each refugee they take in. The package also includes health insurance and other financial support for Ukrainians.
Thousands of Ukrainian children are now attending school in the capital Warsaw, and authorities there have set up special classes for Ukrainians to learn the Polish language.
Thousands more Ukrainians are staying in temporary shelters set up by municipal authorities in towns and cities close to the border.
However, Polish volunteers say it's private donations that are fuelling the lion's share of support for Ukrainian refugees.
Many critics point to the stark contrast in Poland's current treatment of Ukrainians "who are white and Christian" with the treatment its right-wing government has previously meted out to Syrian or Afghan refugees, who are Muslim.
In December, the United Nations Human Rights agency accused Polish and Belarus authorities of pushing Middle Eastern refugees back and forth across their borders – in violation of their rights – and leaving them with little food, clean water or shelter.
Polish border guards used tear gas and water cannon to push them back.
Last week, Tazreena Sajjad, a senior lecturer at the American University School of International Service, accused Poland of treating the current wave of Ukrainian refugees very differently from African and Asian migrants also fleeing the war.
"The European response is also consistent with the racism, Afrophobia and Islamophobia that have historically defined EU's immigration system," she wrote for The Conversation.
"For years, these dynamics have led to the suffering and deaths of people from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia."
Marta Andrzejuk acknowledges that not all Poles are willing to take Ukrainian refugees into their homes. But she says many people she knows are offering support in other ways.
"All my friends are helping as much as they can. And my friends were helping by offering money and donating supplies."
Lila Kalugina will forever remember this Polish couple who've given them shelter.
"I call Marta the saint," she says.
"When I first met her and her son, she said, 'Don't be afraid. Now you're my third child'."
