It’s flight or fight
Few places to run as Russian forces assault cities
THE world has changed fundamentally in the past 48 hours. The assault by Russian forces on Ukraine has upended global politics, economics and alliances and borders.
But even before the invasion there was an incredible 1.5 million internally displaced Ukrainians from eight years of hostilities.
Now you can add another 350,000, many trapped in a human convoy of misery trying to escape the invasion by road, rail and on foot.
Vladimir Putin’s forces are sacking cities, towns and villages from the east, north and south, leaving Ukraine’s western border as the only escape.
“We just packed up our house in Kyiv and left,” a father of two said, on condition we quote him only as Anton.
“Our friends left already, a lot of people we know left but we thought we would be OK here but now we have to leave, where we are not sure but have a friend in Lviv.
“Life in Ukraine already changed. Since 2014 people don’t want to live next to airports or a railway station and now this fear come true.”
Also looking to the road to Lviv, the largest city in Ukraine’s west with a population of 700,000, was Tetiana Kashtanova.
“Many people are trying to leave right now so we have a giant traffic jam but if there is an option for us to leave to the West we will take it,” she said.
Some believe Lviv, 70km from the Polish border, may also not be safe and are heading to another country.
“Anyone who can is fleeing,” Krisztian Szavla, one of the first refugees to arrive in Hungary from Ukraine Transcarpathia region, said.
Others are heading to Poland and Romania, which have set up refugee centres, or Moldova, Slovakia and Hungary, which had sent troops to their respective borders.
Train and bus stations in Ukraine are jammed with a tide of people carrying suitcases – and in some cases just sacks carrying their clothes.
“Everyone is scared,” Kyiv local Julia said. “On the streets people just leave but no one is sure where to go.”
Parts of Kharkiv are already occupied by Russian Special Forces with reinforcements streaming across the border from Belarus.
Many of those fleeing blame the mixed messages. For weeks the Ukrainian government had sought to assure people the country was safe, there was no need for panic buying or displacement and they should just pack a bag with three days of rations and with all valuable documents like passports to leave if required at short notice.
But no one said when that time to leave was. Such was the speed of the Russian assault that it was too late for many and they are now forced to bunker down.
A passenger train from Kharkiv arrived Thursday in the Polish border town of Przemysl carrying a few hundred passengers.
The chief of Poland’s border guards, General Tomasz Praga, said there was a visible increase in the number of people wanting to come in.
Officials said Poland has prepared at least eight centres with food, medical care and places to rest.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said “innocent people are being killed” in Ukraine and appealed to the Poles to extend every possible assistance.