LVIV, Ukraine, March 5 – Thousands of women and children, many of them crying and numb from exhaustion, arrived in Lviv in western Ukraine on Saturday as state-run railways sent more trains to rescue people from fierce Russian attacks on eastern cities.
“I barely slept for 10 days,” said Anna Filatova, who traveled with her two daughters from Kharkov, Ukraine’s second city close to Russia’s eastern border. “The Russians want to raze Kharkov to the ground. It was no longer possible to stay there.”
Hundreds more lined up in the snowstorm on the forecourt, warming themselves in oil drum braziers or lining up for hot food and drinks served by volunteers.
Register now and get FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
register
Many women were in tears or on the verge of tears, their tired children stood silently beside them. Others carried cats in baskets or pulled trembling dogs on leashes.
The longest line was for free buses to neighboring Poland for women, children and older men. Men of fighting age are forbidden to leave the territory of Ukraine.
Other women made their way with their children through a crowded tunnel leading to the platform, from where four or five trains a day left for Poland. But people were not allowed to take large luggage on board.
The train with the soldiers, which Reuters had been ordered not to photograph, set off in the opposite direction.
EVACUATION CORRIDORS
Russia said its units had opened humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha, in eastern Ukraine, surrounded by its troops.
But officials in Mariupol said Moscow was not fully respecting the limited ceasefire, and the International Committee of the Red Cross said it understood the evacuation would not start on Saturday. More
Filatova said Kharkiv had been constantly bombed and shelled since February 24, when the Russian invasion began.
Her daughters, 18-year-old Margarita and 4-year-old Lilly, still flinch at any loud noise. Her husband stayed to fight.
She said there were power and cell phone outages in her area, and huge queues lined up outside grocery stores.
She and her daughters had only backpacks and a small plastic bag of snacks, and her eyes filled with tears as she talked about how much they had left behind.
She was also rebellious. “The Russians thought Kharkov would accept them. But we hate them. We hate Putin.”
She planned to take a break in Lvov before heading to Poland and then to Switzerland, where she could stay with relatives.
Nina Mironenko stood on platform 3 with tears in her eyes. Do you know any volunteers here who can help me? she asked the passers-by, clutching her little son Timothy to her.
nuclear plant
It arrived from Zaporozhye, on the Dnieper River, where on Friday Russian troops attacked Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant, setting a training center on fire.
The fire was extinguished, but fears of a nuclear incident caused panic.
Mironenko squeezed into the train with Timofey and two plastic bags with things. “You can’t take a lot of luggage because then you take the place of another person,” she said.
According to her, shooting was carried out near the tracks at night, and the lights in the train went out. Passengers were ordered to turn off their phones.
Mironenko did not have to. Leaving home in a hurry, she forgot about hers, which made it difficult for her to contact her family and get help.
She said that her brother, a defense volunteer, was wounded by shrapnel during a Russian attack. Her husband also stayed in Zaporozhye to fight. “If everyone leaves, who will defend Ukraine?” she cried.
Dasha Murzhi has just arrived from Odessa, a port city on the Black Sea, with two little boys. Tired and disheveled, she dragged one son off the edge of the platform and sat the other on her suitcase.
Murgi smiled, but not because she was happy.
“I have children, so I can’t cry. I have to stay positive for them.”
Register now and get FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
register
Editing by Kevin Liffey
Our Standards: Trust Principles.