Humanitarian Crisis in Ukraine, Thousands Flee
Ukrainians are fleeing to their EU neighbors as they fear even further escalation. The UN and the EU have vowed support as the already dire humanitarian situation worsens.
Many Ukrainians woke up on Friday away from their home as they fled a Russian invasion.
The UN has reported that at least 100,000 people have been displaced by the war, and predicted the number could rise as high as 4 million. The first Ukrainian refugees have started to arrive in Romania, Hungary and Poland. Some of them spent the night at a train station in neighboring Poland, where reception centers were being hastily set up.
More people were trying to flee from Kyiv to western Ukraine "with whatever they are able to carry," DW correspondent Fanny Facsar said from Ukraine.
What is it like fleeing the war in Ukraine?
Dima Khilchenko, a consultant for DW Academy, shared his experience of moving his family out of Kyiv to the west of the country.
"It was quite complicated yesterday," Khilchenko said. "We woke up at 5:30 a.m. because we heard the explosion and it's very hard to confuse this sound with something else and we understood straight away that the war has started."
Khilchenko said moving his two children from Kyiv to his hometown in western Ukraine took about 10 hours, a journey he said usually takes three.
"It was massive traffic jams, and you could see buildings on the horizon burning, and smoke was going out of them. It was pretty scary."
Thursday was mainly about making sure the family is safe, Khilchenko said. "To my understanding, Kyiv will be the main goal [of the invasion], and we already hear the news," he said, so he moved his family to the west for now but will potentially have to send them abroad as the situation escalates.
Khilchenko himself is, however, unable to leave Ukraine, as mobilization was announced.
"My daughter, who is 6-years-old, asked me if I'm going to war, and I said if I have to, I will, and of course, she asked me not to do that. But you see, like when your country is invaded, who, if not us, will do it," he said, adding that he has no military training and has never shot a gun.
Story posted on DW.com.
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