Red Cross volunteers are on the lookout.
A train from Germany has just arrived at the platform.
Hundreds of Ukrainians pass through the Gare de l'Est daily, mostly women and children.
Masha fled Kharkiv and the bombings.
"I hope that all this will stop and that we can return to Ukraine quickly, confides the young dark-haired woman. I just want to wait a bit, the time to regain my strength, to be ready to participate in the reconstruction of my country."
A major surprise often awaits the refugees welcomed here.
Many Russian volunteers come to lend a hand to the Red Cross, which lacks translators to assist and guide newcomers.
For Anna, a native of Saint Petersburg, who has been living in France for a long time, welcoming Ukrainian refugees is a way of feeling useful.
"What totally demolished me at the beginning was that the cities that are bombed, destroyed, looted, she explains in a tight voice. These are the cities of my childhood in fact. When the war started, to be very honest, I think I spent two weeks crying. And actually, I had to do something."
With rare exceptions, the presence of Russian interpreters is well accepted by the refugees.
"We don't make a difference between the Russians and the others, says Natalia Perepelytsia, a Ukrainian who has just arrived. We judge people on their qualities and not on their nationality. Here, we were helped, we don't suffered no discrimination, everything is fine."
>> To read also: War in Ukraine: the bar of 5 million refugees has been crossed
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