Women and children lead exit from Ukraine as refugees surge into Poland

But many Ukrainian men are returning home to take up arms and fight

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

Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine

From his cashmere shop in Kharkiv, north-east Ukraine, Dara Zabullah viewed the Russian troop build-up on the border less than 50 kilometres away with increasing trepidation.

Then, less than a week ago, he left the city, becoming one of the tens of thousands of people who fled across the border into Poland after Russia plunged Europe back into war.

Mr Zabullah says his shop has not been hit by rocket fire so far, despite the Russian military pummelling Kharkiv with artillery — as it has done in many other parts of Ukraine.

I said to my friend: 'One time we lost our homeland. This is the second time'

Dara Zabullah,
Afghan resident of Kharkiv

It is the second time that the 22-year-old has been forced to leave his home. Originally from Afghanistan, he moved to Ukraine five years ago to study.

On a frigid early morning, he arrived in the small Polish border village of Korczowa.

“It’s very hard to explain what’s going on inside me,” Mr Zabullah says. He loves Ukraine, describing it as the most beautiful country in the world, but has now been forced to move on.

“I said to my friend: 'One time we lost our homeland. This is the second time',” Mr Zabullah says.

“I can speak the Ukrainian language like my native language. I have more [Ukrainian] friends than Afghan friends. The people I lived with, they are all Ukrainians.”

About 120,000 people have fled from Ukraine in recent days following the attack by Russia.

The Polish authorities have quickly moved to set up reception centres in border areas and have eased entry restrictions.

At dawn in Korczowa, the village is empty except for the social club — a hive of activity, where the Polish Red Cross, fire service, police and others are working to support refugees.

Arrivals register with the authorities and are given food and drinks. Exhausted after lengthy queues on the Ukrainian side of the border, Some sleep upstairs where mattresses have been placed across the floor.

They are also given help to find accommodation in the country, although many have been met by family members or friends.

No 10 Downing Street in London is lit blue and yellow in solidarity with Ukraine after the Russian invasion. EPA

A protest banner outside Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, which is also lit up in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Reuters

People show solidarity with the people of Ukraine outside the Colosseum in Rome. AP Photo

The Cinquantenaire Arch lit up on the sidelines of a special meeting of the European Council to discuss the Ukrainian crisis, in Brussels. Bloomberg

Oslo City Hall is illuminated in Norway. Reuters

The SIS Building in central London, home to intelligence services, is lit up in an expression of solidarity with Ukraine. PA

Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. EPA

The Foreign Office in central London displays the colours of the Ukrainian flag. PA

Sarajevo City Hall floodlit in blue and yellow in Bosnia. AFP

The Queen Elizabeth II Centre in central London. PA

St George's Hall in Liverpool, England. PA

Mr Zabullah is considering going to Germany to get help from the Afghan community there. He is one of the few men arriving at the reception centre — Ukrainian men aged 18-60 have been stopped from leaving the country and are being urged to fight.

It means that many arrivals are mothers with their children.

These include Ivanka from Ukraine's Lviv region. “If I was alone with my husband, I would not leave. But with four children, the air raid sirens were too much for all of them,” she says.

She and her children, one of whom is disabled, were driven to within 5 kilometres of the border by a family friend. They will now go to Warsaw, where her sister lives.

Ivanka says she never expected Russia to carry out military action in western Ukraine.

“Donetsk, ok, maybe,” she said in reference to the contested territory in eastern Ukraine. But never this part of Ukraine,” she says.

Ukrainian fighters test an automatic grenade launcher taken from a destroyed Russian infantry vehicle in Kharkiv. AFP

Refugees from Ukraine rest after arriving at a railway station in Przemysl, Poland. AP

People walk down 17th June Street in Berlin before a rally against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. AP

Vitali Klitschko, Mayor of Kiev and former heavyweight boxing champion, right, and his brother, Wladimir. AP

Khreshchatyk, Kiev’s main street, lies empty as a curfew comes into effect. AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to the nation from Kiev. AP

On February 27, the seventh anniversary of the assassination of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, a note stating ‘No to war!’ is placed among flowers on the central Moscow bridge on which he was shot. AFP

A member of the Ukrainian forces, wearing the Guy Fawkes mask popularised by Anonymous, patrols central Kiev. AFP

Sviatoslav Yurash, 26, a politician from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party, poses with his assault rifle as he patrols Kiev. AFP

A Ukrainian serviceman and his dog look at smoke from a burning fuel storage depot after a Russian missile attack near Kiev. EPA

A refugee who fled conflict in Ukraine rests at a railway station after arriving in Zahony, Hungary. AP

A refugee boy who fled Ukraine cries at the railway station in Zahony, Hungary. AP

Civil defence members eat during a break at City Hall in Kiev. AP

An Indian student is embraced by his family at Chennai Airport after returning from Ukraine. EPA

Smoke is seen rising from behind buildings following bombings in Kiev. Getty

An armed civil defence woman holds a Kalashnikov assault rifle while patrolling an empty street in Kiev. AP

A woman fleeing from Ukraine cries as she waits to be taken to a shelter in Zahony, Hungary. Reuters

Ukrainian refugees cross the Romanian border at Siret, northern Romania. EPA

A residential building damaged by shelling in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine. AFP

Apartments damaged by shelling in Kharkiv. AFP

A girl protests against Russia's military operation in Ukraine, in front of the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv. AFP

Young women protest in Tbilisi, Georgia with their hands painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Getty

Supplies for Ukrainian refugees at one of three camps set up at the MoldExpo exhibition center, in Chisinau, Moldova. EPA

Police detain a demonstrator during a protest against Russia's incursion into Ukraine in St Petersburg. AP

A man waits at a bus stop in St Petersburg, which has been with a painted in the colours of Ukraine's national flag. EPA

Russian ground forces approaching Nova Kakhovka, southern Ukraine. AP

A woman holds her daughter's hand as they arrive by bus from the Polish-Ukrainian border. Getty

A man drives his car full of food supplies to deliver to the Ukrainian side of the border, where thousands wait to enter Poland. Getty

Refugees arrive with buses from the Medyka pedestrian border crossing, in Przemsyl, eastern Poland. AFP

People gather to catch a train and leave Ukraine for neighboring countries at the railway station in Lviv, western Ukraine. AP

Cars form a line that stretches 35 kilometres from the Shehyni border crossing to Poland as people try to flee Russia's military operation against Ukraine. Reuters

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

A Ukrainian soldier walks past debris of a burning military truck, on a street in Kiev. AP

People run for cover during the shelling on the city of Kiev. AP

A child refugee who fled the conflict in Ukraine covers her face in the event hall of a hotel offering shelter in Siret, Romania. AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy holding a briefing in Kyiv. He said that Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan have suggested talks with Russia, which 'can only be welcomed'. AFP

Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, at a news conference in the embassy of Ukraine, Washington. AP

Manchester City footballers wear t-shirts in support of Ukraine before a match. Reuters

Ukrainian refugees arrive in Warsaw by train from Kiev. EPA

A woman waves a Ukrainian flag during a rally in Times Square, New York City. AFP

A man sits next to his dogs in an underground car park turned into a bomb shelter during an air raid alert in Kiev. AP

A woman sleeps on chairs in a Kiev bomb shelter. AP

A satellite image with overlaid graphics shows military vehicles alongside the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Reuters

A satellite image shows the effects of shelling in open fields along Soborna Street in the north-east suburbs of Kharkiv. Reuters

A big fire at a petroleum storage depot after a Russian missile attack, in Vasylkiv, near Kiev. EPA

Ukrainian servicemen take positions at a military airbase in the Kyiv region. Reuters

At the Korczowa-Kravovets border, cars line the hard shoulder for more than a kilometre on the Polish side. They are owned by people waiting for family members or friends crossing from Ukraine.

On Saturday morning, many said they had slept in their cars overnight and endured a nervous wait. Extensive queues, sometimes lasting days, have been reported on the Ukrainian side.

One of those waiting was Roman, who is Ukrainian but works in the Czech Republic. He was picking up his Belarusian wife, Marina, who has lived in Ukraine for many years, and their daughter Camilla, 2. It will be only the third time father and daughter have met.

They arrived with little more than a buggy, after leaving Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine. Marina said the town was not attacked, but adds: “I am happy I was able to escape; the decision was easy. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or you are poor ― everyone is running away.”

In Przemysl, a town about 15km west of another border crossing, Ukrainians have poured in through the train station. Inside the terminal, exhausted families rest on seats while volunteers and officials give out food and essential supplies. Drivers advertise free lifts.

It is estimated that four times the normal daily number of passengers arrived on Saturday alone.

But trains are still running the other way, into Ukraine. The passengers are mostly men returning to Ukraine to protect their country.

One of them, a 21-year-old who was born in Ukraine but has lived in Poland with his family for eight years, said, if anything, he was late for the war — referring to the fact that the fighting had been raging for several days.

“I have friends there, I have to go,” he said while waiting for his train.

He said it was normal to perhaps be a little bit scared — “we go somewhere where people kill other people”.

Back at the Korczowa-Kravovets border is Ivana, a mother of three, who has strong ties to Poland and lives about 15km inside the Ukrainian border. Her youngest daughter was born in Poland, and they were waiting to be picked up by Ivana’s Warsaw-based sister. She came to Poland for the sake of the children, leaving her husband behind.

“He will fight. If he doesn’t fight, they will come for you,” she said, referring to Russia and its threat to Europe.