From The Associated Press
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-migration-0be51a56db346666b55639b519bec83b
Tears flowed, hands waved and voices said unwelcome goodbyes again Tuesday as Russia’s endless war against Ukraine forced more refugees to flee their homes.
Images captured by photographers for The Associated Press on day 27 of the conflict reflect the pain and heartbreak of both those who are leaving and those left behind.
In the southern city of Odessa, a woman and her young child, both struggling not to collapse, look out the window of a departing train as the woman’s grandmother, holding a handkerchief to her face, bids them farewell from the platform. In the western city of Lviv, a bearded man holds his hand to the outside of a train window while a small child sobs from the other side just before they are about to part.
After arriving at a train station in Poland, a woman who fled Ukraine sits amidst a crowd of other refugees, her head in her hands and her eyes fixed in resignation.
For many of the displaced, Lviv, a western city with a rich cultural heritage that has so far been spared the fighting, is their first stop in Ukraine. City residents warmly welcomed the migrants and encouraged them to get to know their new homes better. On Tuesday, the Lviv National Philharmonic presented a live performance by a choir in the city’s downtown. A battered punching bag with the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin on it hangs in one of the city’s bars.
Most of the more than 3.5 million refugees fleeing Ukraine were women and children because men aged 18 to 60 — the fighting age — are banned from leaving the country.
Full coverage: photography
An AP photo Tuesday shows a camouflage-clad fighter sitting at his post in the hard-hit northeastern city of Kharkiv. A long gun rests in his lap and one of his hands rests near the trigger while the other brings a cigarette to his mouth. Elsewhere in Kharkiv, several militants lie in a row of beds, shoes off and weapons laid aside, some busy with their cellphones and others napping during a well-deserved rest.