Hundreds of Jordanians in Ukraine flee crisis, expatriate association head says

On Sunday alone, 100 Jordanian residents of Ukraine crossed borders to European countries on Sunday

Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine

Hundreds of Jordanians in Ukraine are making their way to the western border with Europe.

But some of the kingdom’s 5,000 citizens in the country may choose to stay, the head of the Jordanian expatriates’ association in Ukraine said on Sunday.

Kamel Awamleh, head of the association, said by phone from Kiev that most of those fleeing lived in the capital and other large Ukrainian cities that have been the main target of Russian attacks in recent days.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry said 100 Jordanians had crossed Ukraine’s land borders to Slovakia, Moldova, Poland, Hungary and Romania on Sunday.

Eight of the 100 had since arrived in Jordan’s capital, Amman, by plane.

The ministry said that about 700 Jordanian students were studying in Ukraine when the Russian ground and aerial assault began last week.

It said it had sent diplomats to European countries bordering Ukraine from the west to meet fleeing citizens and help them return to Jordan.

“Those outside the big population centres are less inclined to leave,” Mr Awamleh said by phone.

Jordan and Ukraine have diplomatic relations and the country has been a main destination for Jordanian students studying abroad, even before it declared independence, following the break-up of the former Soviet Union in 1991.

In pictures - Ukraine refugees arrive in Poland

Helena, right, and her brother Bodia, from Lviv, wait at the Medyka border crossing in eastern Poland. AFP

A brother and sister share a bowl of soup after they and their mother fled the Russian invasion of Ukraine and crossed the border at Medyka, Poland. Reuters

Nadia, a Ukrainian woman, walks around with her baby in a car park in Przemysl, Poland as she waits for help with transport and accommodation. Reuters

A woman searches through donated clothes for useful items after she and her children fled the Russian invasion in Ukraine and crossed the border in Medyka, Poland. Reuters

Oksana, 30, holds a seven-day-old child after arriving by bus at a rendezvous point organised to help Ukrainian refugees with accommodation and transport to different cities in Poland. Reuters

Refugees wait for help in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters

People wait in a Polish car park to help refugees arriving from Ukraine. Reuters

A father kisses his daughter after she, her mother and grandmother fled from the Russian invasion in Ukraine and crossed the border in Medyka, Poland. Reuters

Refugees wait for help in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters

Ukrainian refugees in the town of Maroz near Olsztyn, Poland. EPA

A Ukrainian refugee in the town of Maroz, Poland. EPA

Ukrainian refugees in the town of Maroz, northern Poland. EPA

Hospital employees and volunteers make hundreds of beds to prepare for an influx of Ukrainian refugees in Rzeszow, Poland. AP

Ukrainian refugees who arrived by evening train from Kiev to Warsaw are helped at the Warszawa Wschodnia railway station in the Polish capital. EPA

Ukrainian refugees arrive by train from Kiev at the Warszawa Wschodnia station in Warsaw. EPA

Ukrainian refugees arrive by train from Kiev to Warsaw, Poland. EPA

Ukrainian refugees arrive from the Medyka border crossing in eastern Poland. AFP

A man hugs a child at the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing in Medyka, Poland. Getty