Refugees from Ukraine speak of horrors after the invasion

MEDYKA, Poland — Yulia Bondarieva spent 10 days in a basement as Russian planes flew over and bombs were falling on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Having reached safety in Poland, Bondarieva’s only wish now is for her twin sister in the besieged city of Mariupol to get out too.

“They have been in the basement since Feb. 24, they have not been out at all,” Bondarieva said. “They are running out of food and water.”

Bondarieva managed to speak to her sister on the phone recently. The fear of what will happen to her in the encircled and bombedout city that is going through some of the worst fighting in the war has been overwhelming.

“She does not know how to leave the city,” the 24-year-old said after arriving in the Polish border town of Medyka.

Mariupol authorities have said only about 10% of the city’s population of 430,000 has managed to flee over the past week. The Mariupol City Council has asserted that several thousand residents were taken into Russia against their will.

Bondarieva said her sister told her of “Russian soldiers walking around the city” in Mariupol, and people not being allowed out.

The battle for the strategic port on the Azov Sea raged Monday. Russian and Ukrainian soldiers were fighting block-by-block for control of Mariupol, where at least 2,300 people have died, some buried in mass graves.

Maria Fiodorova, a 77-year-old refugee from Mariupol who arrived Monday in Medyka, said 90% of the city has been destroyed.

“There are no buildings there (in Mairupol) any more,” she said.

For Maryna Galla, just listening to birds singing as she arrived in Poland was blissful after the sound of shelling and death in Mariupol. Galla took a stroll in the park in Przemysl with her 13-year-old son Danil. She hopes to reach Germany next.

“It’s finally getting better,” Galla said.

The United Nations says nearly 3.5 million people have left Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, the largest exodus of refugees in Europe since World War II.

Zoryana Maksimovich is from the western city of Lviv, near the Polish border. Though the city has seen less destruction than others, Maksimovich said her children are frightened and cried every night when they had to go to the basement for protection.

“I told my children that we are going to visit friends,” the 40-year-old said. “They don’t understand clearly what is going on but in a few days they are going to ask me about where their father is.”

Like most refugees, Maksimovich had to flee without her husband — men ages 18 to 60 are forbidden from leaving the country and have stayed to fight.

“I don’t know how I will explain,” she said.

CZAREK SOKOLOWSKI/AP Refugees wait Monday at the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland, to apply for Polish ID cards that will entitle them to work in the country and receive health care.