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This Indian restaurant in Ukraine offers shelter and free food to refugees amid rising tensions

The restaurant owner said that his family back in India is very worried about his safety but as of now he has decided to stay back in Ukraine and continue helping those in need.

While the residents of Ukraine grappled to find proper shelter or food since the day Russia invaded their country, this Indian man, who runs a restaurant in the capital city Kyiv, decided to extend a helping hand by converting his restaurant into a shelter home. He has also been providing free food too to those seeking shelter.

Manish Dave, the owner of ’Saathiya’ restaurant, has garnered the attention of thousands online for providing shelter to the needy.

The restaurant, which is in the basement, is said to be providing shelter to 125 people now - children, pregnant ladies, students, homeless people and the elderly.

According to media reports, Dave is from Gujarat’s Vadodara. He had opened the restaurant in January this year after moving to Ukraine in October 2021.

“Everything was going fine. Suddenly, all these things happened here. There was fire, blasts, bombs. It has been very scary. People are scared,” Dave told the Washington Post.

He says that he had decided to open his restaurant for civilians after a series of explosions.

It is understood that he had initially reached out to students, who were a majority of his customer base, and then he took to Twitter to ask people in need of shelter and/or food to get in touch with him. 

“If you don’t have any proper safe place to stay during this time, please go here,” Dave had tweeted.

 He had also shared the address of his restaurant and further wrote, “We will try our best to arrange for free food and stay according to our capacity. Stand united with Ukraine.”

He added that they don’t take any money from those taking shelter in his restaurant. Instead, he asked them to help with groceries if they could, so he could continue providing free food to those in need.

“We are like one family. We all contribute things, not money. People are donating rice, food and vegetables. We are all contributing and sharing,” Dave said.

He also said that his family back in India is very worried about his safety but as of now he has decided to stay back in Ukraine and continue helping those in need.

That said, he says he also has plans to leave Ukraine if the crisis worsens. In case there comes a situation where he has to flee the country, Dave says he plans to hand over the keys to people taking shelter in the restaurant so they can continue to stay there until the situation gets better outside.