He said Tuesday that Mariupol looked like Warsaw in 1944 when Germans bombed homes and killed civilians with “no mercy at all.”
President Andrzej Duba, who will welcome President Joe Bidenlater this Week in Warsaw, rebuilt from the ashes that war, spoke to traumatized citizens as they listened to the horrors inflicted upon Ukraine by Russian forces. They arrived in Poland and other neighbouring countries by the hundreds.
Tuesday marked a significant milestone for the United Nations refugee agency: More than 3 million refugees have fled the country.
Viktoria Totsen (39-year-old Mariupol woman who came to Poland as part of the exodus that has been Europe’s most severe refugee crisis since World War II) was one of them.
She spoke of how Russian planes bombarded her, making it necessary for her to flee her daughters and her husband.
She said, “In the last five days, the planes flew over us every five minutes and dropped bombs all around.”
Duda made a comparison between the Russian bombardment of schools, hospitals, and other civilian targets during a visit in Bulgaria to the atrocities that were committed by German forces during World War II’s occupation of Poland.
Duda stated that Poles are looking at Mariupol today and saying, “God” — with tears in their eyes — “Mariupol looks just like Warsaw in 1944 when Nazis, Hitler’s Germans were bombing homes, killing people, killing civilians with absolutely no mercy.”
“Today, the Russian army behaves exactly the same as yesterday. Russian leaders behave exactly the same as Hitler and the German SS.
A refugee from Mykolaiv 45-year-old Natalia Shabadash described a rocket explosion at 500m (yards) away from her home in Przemysl.
She said that it was scary and that is why she decided to leave her home. Her husband, as many Ukrainian men, had remained in Ukraine.
Tuesday’s UNHCR report stated that 3.53 million people had fled Ukraine. Poland took in more than 2.1million, followed by Romania (more than 540,000) and Moldova (3667,000). Slovakia and Hungary also welcome refugees.
According to the International Organization for Migration, nearly 6.5 million people have been internally displaced in Ukraine. This suggests that many, if not all, may flee abroad if war continues.
While many people who cross into Poland decide to stay, it is difficult to determine the exact number. The Polish Border Guard agency registers them upon entry from Ukraine. However, they are not registered if they cross the open borders to the European Union to Germany France Italy or Italy.
However, it is clear that many choose to remain in Poland, close their homeland, in hopes of returning to their homeland after the war. They are drawn to the cultural and linguistic similarities with the other Slavic nation. In recent times, a large number of Ukrainians have applied for a national identification number which will allow them to access health care and other services.
Shabadash fled Mykolaiv and said that she was treated well in Poland. She felt so grateful to the Polish people, but wanted to travel to France.
Occasionally, however, these orphans and sick children arrive in large numbers from Ukraine.
Due to missing paperwork from Ukraine, many Ukrainian orphans and caretakers were stuck in Warsaw on Tuesday.
Nearly 50 children from Dnipro, a central Ukrainian city, were scheduled to fly to London Monday morning before continuing on to Scotland. They were made to stay in hotels until the bureaucratic blockup was resolved.
Dnipro Kids, a charity based in Scotland, organized the trip for them. It was established in 2005 by supporters at Hibernian Football Club, Edinburgh.
Priti Patel, UK Home Secretary, stated last week that British authorities had been working with Ukraine and Poland “to ensure that the children arrive quickly in the U.K.”
Duncan MacRae is the media manager for Dnipro Kids. He said that the children were evacuated first by train from Dnipro, to Lviv in western Ukraine. The children were then transferred to a bus and transported to Poland where they stayed for two weeks.
Sally Becker (executive director of Save a Child), who is helping with the evacuation said that the delay was caused by a document which was not provided by Ukrainian authorities and was discovered just as the group was heading to the airport.
She stated that all she wanted to do was provide them with safe and temporary shelter in Britain while the war is over so they can go home.
