Tetiana Andreeva and her two daughters, Tetiana and Ivana, traveled 22 hours by train from their home in Southern Ukraine, to the Polish border city of Medyka. The chaos that they had left behind was replaced by compassion when they arrived at Medyka.
Their journey was only the beginning. Soon, they were boarding a bus that was going deeper into Poland. From there, they plan to catch anotherbus to take them to Germany.
Andreeeva stated that Ania, aged 11, and Irina, 6, were spared most of the horrors. She said, “I tried to protect my children.” “I don’t give them all the information I have.”
UNICEF estimates that at least 1 million refugees are children. The rest are women or the elderly. This is a human catastrophe of a magnitude Europe hasn’t experienced since World War II.
David Miliband, president and CEO of International Rescue Committee, stated that “Don’t think this will be over soon.”
Lee Cowan, Correspondent, asked: “As bad is this, more than three million people so far. How bad do you think it will get?”
Miliband responded, “We should plan for the worst, no matter how much we hope for it,” “Planning for the worst is five to seven people or, in some estimations, 10 million people leaving the country.
These dire predictions have already led to a new directive, which allows refugees to work and stay in EU countries for up three years. Miliband stated that the approach was to let people in first and then do the paperwork later. “And that’s an extremely significant reaction, and speaks to the scales the crisis.”
Miliband stated that the issue is not limited to Ukraine’s exit. “We must remember that for every person making it out of Ukraine there are ten who remain in Ukraine.”
Russia’s indifference to humanitarian corridors has left many inside the country practically cut off. The few who are able to leave the country can take with them luggage of a different type, such as award-winning photojournalist Peter Turnley.
Turnley said to Cowan that he met a journalist and asked him what he had seen. He asked me about my guilt and I explained that I felt the same sense of guilt as the people I had seen. Without warning, I began to sob.”
He captured in a single moment what words could not. But if there was one emotion that overpowered them all, it was loss.
The image of Vitali, a man from Kyiv, saying goodbye to his family, haunts him. “He stood on tracks for a long time and his wife and daughter stared at one another. The train suddenly stopped. It was almost as if you had lost your breath. Vitali, a man who had just lost contact with his child and wife, felt this immense pain. The fate of all three of them was unknown.”
Vladimir Putin had hoped to create a refugee crisis that would destabilize Western democracies politically. He has failed. However, he’s succeeded in testing the limits human cruelty.
Turnley stated, “This moment feels very black.” It is also very dark because so many people are forced to leave the country.