“We lost our life, our security”, says Anastasia Kazankina, a lawyer waiting outside a packed refugee center in the Polish border town of Przemysl. Like many of the refugees who fled the war in Ukraine, leaving husbands and children behind, it does not even occur to her to celebrate International Women’s Day.
“We cannot plan any future because we do not know what will be tomorrow”, says Kazankina, clinging to her son Ilya and her dog Marsia.
In this car park, opposite what was once a Tesco supermarket and now hosts refugees, Kazankina, who came from Kiev, says she wants to stay in Poland but she doesn’t know what to do while her husband is in the army.
More than two million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24. More than a million have ended up in Poland and many arrived in Przemysl from the city of Lviv in eastern Ukraine through the Medyka border crossing.
“Come back some day”
In the parking lot of Przemysl, buses come and go, mostly filled with women and children hoping to finally be safe but worried about those they left behind.
One of the buses is heading to Estonia. Vera Verozub, a grandmother from Kiev, approaches him with two heavy bags, helped by her grandchildren aged 4 and 14. His parents stayed to “defend the country.”
“We took a train to Lviv. From Lviv, we took the bus for a while and then we walked,” he told AFP, with teary eyes peeking out from above a red hood and beanie, on a chilly morning.
Nearby, Anna Martynova, an assistant at a nursing home in southern Ukraine, stands with her two children after spending part of their journey on a bus with no seats.
“It has been hard, we have been traveling for two days. There were interruptions, our roads are destroyed, highway bridges are destroyed,” he told AFP.
Martynova is perhaps lucky because her husband already lives in Poland, working on the railway.
Yulia Sokolovskaya, on the other hand, explains that had to leave her spouse when she left her hometown of Kharkivunder the bombs, with his seven-year-old son.
“In Ukraine, we spend a few days in the subway because it was dangerous to go outside”, he told AFP. Now he hopes to go to stay with some friends in Italy – “a good place to rest” – but her optimism crumbles when she remembers her husbandwho had to stay.
“He can’t leave the country, he’s still there. I check every hour if it’s ok”, he says, bursting into tears. “I left my whole life there and I really hope I can come back one day”. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
