Thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing the war with Russia and have begun arriving in neighboring countries, mainly Moldova and Romania, as some 100,000 have fled their homes and been uprooted in the country since the invasion, the UN refugee agency said on Thursday.
The countries on the eastern flank of the European Union, once part of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact and now NATO members, are preparing for many more Ukrainians, setting up reception points and sending troops to the borders to help. Among them, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania share land borders with Ukraine.
“If Russia continues on this path, we estimate it could create a new refugee crisis – one of the biggest facing the world today – with another five million displaced by the war to choose Russia and put pressure on Ukraine. neighbors, “warned US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Wednesday.
Russia launched a comprehensive invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea, the largest attack by one country on another in Europe since World War II, fueling fears of a massive flood of refugees fleeing Ukraine, a nation of 44 million people.
At least 68 people were killed and 169 injured on Thursday, Ukraine’s health minister said, while the interior ministry said 13 border guards were killed when a Russian ship shelled the Ukrainian island of Zmiiny, south of the Black Sea port of Odessa.
Groups of people fled to Hungary through the Beregsurani and Tisabech checkpoints, some of whom came from Kyiv, an eyewitness said. Some arrived by car, but many pedestrians also pulled suitcases.
“Nobody wants to be mobilized, nobody wants to die,” Tamas Bodnar said on the border with Hungary. “Clearly, those who can run away.”
The highway west of Kyiv, home to 3 million people, was congested with five-lane traffic as residents tried to flee for fear of bombs stuck in their cars.
Dozens arrived on foot from Ukraine at the usually quiet Medica border crossing in southern Poland on Thursday morning, carrying luggage. The fence of cars waiting to pass was extended during the day.
Olena Bogutska, a 39-year-old Pole, said she waited four hours while her Ukrainian husband and child were stranded on the other side.
“You can’t pass,” she said. “I can’t contact them on the phone … I don’t know how to take my child out … I don’t know what to do.”
The first train with Ukrainian refugees arrives in Przemysl on Thursday . Hungary also said its embassy in Kyiv remained open. The Czech Republic closed its Kyiv embassy but its consulate in the western city of Lviv remained open.
A man waits for the arrival of the train in in eastern Ukraine city of Lisichansk on Thursday as resident fled their homes and headed to West following Russia’s invasion
A mother carries her child after arriving on first train with Ukrainian refugees to Przemysl, Poland on Thursday
Ukrainian refugees rest at a train station hall that was turned into an accommodation center in Przemysl, Poland, on Thursday
Thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing war with Russia and started arriving into neighboring countries, mainly Moldova and Romania. Above, families line up to board a Kyiv bound train at a station in Severodonetsk, the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday
People waiting for a Kyiv-bound train walk to a platform in Kramatorsk, the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine
The highway heading west out of Kyiv, home to 3 million people, was choked with traffic across five lanes as residents sought to escape, fearful of bombs while stuck in their cars
People wait in traffic jam as they leave Kharkiv after Russian President Vladimir Putin authorizes military operation in eastern Ukraine
To make it easier to cross the border, Poland lifted quarantine rules on Thursday for people arriving from outside the EU without a laboratory-certified negative test for COVID-19.
Poland is home to the largest Ukrainian community in the region, numbering about 1 million, and is the easiest EU country to reach from Kyiv. The country’s government has called for “the toughest possible sanctions” against Russia.
Elsewhere in the region, Czech President Milos Zeman, who has long sympathized with Moscow, called Russian President Vladimir Putin “crazy.” Prague stopped issuing visas to Russians and ordered the closure of two Russian consulates.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has also built good ties with Putin, also condemned Moscow’s actions. He said Hungary would prepare humanitarian aid for Ukraine and was ready to accept refugees.
Several hundred people also left Ukraine from part of its territory sandwiched between Moldova and the Black Sea, crossing into Romania by ferry over the Danube, local authorities said.
Slovak customs officials have said that passenger cars have to wait up to 12 hours at the busiest of Slovakia’s three roadblocks with Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians work in Slovakia and Hungary, where there is a large ethnic minority of about 140,000 living right within Ukraine’s borders.
Poland has been preparing a medical train to transport wounded Ukrainians and is compiling a list of 1,230 hospitals that can receive the wounded, the health ministry said. The Polish army raised the level of readiness of some units.
“We will do everything we can to ensure that everyone who enters Poland has access to health care, including hospitalization,” the ministry said.
Poland has set up refugee reception centers near border crossings. Slovakia has also said it is ready to help refugees.
“Please let us show compassion and understanding to them,” said Prime Minister Eduard Heger.
Slovakia will send up to 1,500 troops to its border with Ukraine and additional checkpoints will be set up, Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad said. Hungary has also said it will send troops to its border to help process refugees.
The governor of Slovakia’s eastern Košice region, Rostislav Trnka, said about 2,000 beds and about 60 gyms had been prepared to help accommodate refugees.
The Czech Republic, which does not border Ukraine but is home to 260,000 Ukrainians, has also said it is ready to help refugees. Czech Railways has offered 6,000-seat railcars and beds to help evacuate people if needed.
Romania is ready to provide humanitarian aid if needed, President Klaus Johannes said on Thursday, while Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said his country is preparing to evacuate more than 4,000 ethnic Bulgarians from Ukraine by land and is ready to accept other Ukrainian refugees. .
A spokesman for the Polish government said Polish diplomatic missions in Ukraine would remain open “as far as possible”, but the foreign ministry called on all Polish citizens to leave Ukraine.
Hungary also said its embassy in Kyiv remains open. The Czech Republic has closed its embassy in Kyiv, but its consulate in the western city of Lviv has remained open.
Germany has offered humanitarian aid to countries bordering Ukraine. German media quoted estimates that between 200,000 and one million people could flee the EU to Ukraine.
Shabia Mantu, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the figures were collected from reports from national authorities and its staff and partner agencies. “This is an exemplary figure,” she told Reuters.
Ukrainian forces battled Russian invaders from three countries on Thursday after Moscow unleashed the largest attack on a European country since World War II, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war in a televised address before dawn, explosions and shootings were heard throughout the day in the Ukrainian capital and elsewhere, with at least 70 killed.
The attack put a disastrous end to weeks of fruitless diplomatic efforts by Western leaders to prevent war over Russia’s demands to redraw security agreements in post-Cold War Europe.
“This is a deliberate attack,” US President Joe Biden told White House reporters as he uncovered new harsh sanctions, coordinated with allies, against Russian banks, oligarchs and state-owned companies.
“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will suffer the consequences, “he said.
In his address, Putin said he had ordered a “special military operation” to protect people, including Russian citizens, subjected to “genocide” in Ukraine – an accusation the West called groundless propaganda.
And that is why we will strive for the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, “Putin said.
After nightfall, a picture of fierce battles appeared on many fronts. Late Thursday, President Vladimir Zelensky ordered a general mobilization to be carried out within 90 days “to ensure the country’s defense”.
An adviser to the Ukrainian president’s office said Russian forces had taken over the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, just 60 miles north of Kyiv. The plant is the shortest route from the Ukrainian capital to Belarus, where Moscow has deployed troops.
There was also fighting at Hostomel Airport, right next to Kyiv, where Russian paratroopers landed. A Ukrainian official later said the airport had been seized, while a senior US defense official said Russian forces were approaching Kyiv.
Intense skirmishes have also been reported in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions in the northeast and Kherson in the south.
Traffic jams in Kyiv, Ukraine on Thursday as residents flee the capital
Thursday began with rockets pouring into targets in Ukraine and reports of troops and armor pouring across the Russian-Belarusian border to the north and east.
Zelensky called on Ukrainians to defend their country and said that anyone who is ready to fight will be given a weapon.
“What we have heard today is not just rocket bombings, battles and the rumble of planes. “This is the sound of the new Iron Curtain coming down and closing Russia off from the civilized world,” Zelensky said.
Putin, after mentioning earlier in his speech Russia’s powerful nuclear arsenal, warned: “Whoever tries to stop us … must know that Russia’s response will be immediate. And this will lead to consequences that you have never encountered in your history. ‘
Asked if the threat was tantamount to a threat from Russia’s use of nuclear weapons, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said it was indeed understood as such, adding that Putin also needed to understand that NATO was a nuclear alliance.
Biden ruled out sending US troops to defend Ukraine, but Washington reinforced its NATO allies in the region with additional troops and aircraft.
After consulting with the Group of Seven’s leading industrialized nations, Biden announced measures to thwart Russia’s ability to do business in major world currencies, along with sanctions against banks and state-owned enterprises.
Britain has also targeted banks as well as members of Putin’s inner circle. European Union leaders have said measures would include freezing Russian assets in the 27-nation bloc.
However, China remained out of step, rejecting the description of Russia’s actions as an “invasion”.
Russia is one of the largest producers of energy in the world and both Ukraine and Ukraine are among the largest exporters of grain. War and sanctions will destroy the world’s economies, which are already facing a crisis as they emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
European stocks fell to a nine-month low, but US stocks ended higher after the announcement of Biden’s sanctions. Earlier, Brent oil exceeded $ 100 / barrel for the first time since 2014.
Ukrainians board a train to Kyiv near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine as Russian forces invade the border
Putin said he did not plan a military occupation just to disarm Ukraine and rid it of nationalists, and its end remains unclear.
A senior U.S. defense official said Washington believed the invasion was intended to “decapitate” Zelensky’s government. But it is difficult to see Ukrainians accept Moscow’s leadership.
“I think we have to fight everyone who is invading our country so hard,” said a man stuck in traffic trying to leave Kyiv. “I would hang each of them on bridges.”
A democratic nation of 44 million people, Ukraine is the largest country in Europe by area after Russia itself. She voted for independence in the fall of the Soviet Union and recently stepped up her efforts to join NATO and the European Union, an aspiration that infuriates Moscow.
Putin, who for months has denied planning an invasion, called Ukraine an artificial structure carved out of Russia by its enemies, a feature Ukrainians see as an attempt to erase their more than 1,000-year history.
While many Ukrainians, especially in the East, speak Russian as their mother tongue, virtually everyone identifies as Ukrainian.
There was also some disagreement in Russia. Police detained more than 1,600 people participating in anti-war rallies in 53 cities, and authorities threatened to block reports of “false information” in the media.
In the southeastern port of Mariupol, near the front line held by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, local authorities said 26 people had been injured in the shelling. Civilians packed their luggage. “We will hide,” said one woman.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, said her forces shot down two Russian helicopters and seven other Russian planes and destroyed several Russian trucks, and a platoon of Russia’s 74th Motorized Rifle Brigade surrendered.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has said it has destroyed 83 Ukrainian ground targets and achieved all its targets, according to Interfax.
Protests against the invasion took place in Europe and the United States. At a Square Square demonstration in New York, Ukrainian-born Ivana Lotoshinski called for solidarity with Ukrainians.
“People are losing their lives right now. “Ukrainians are fighting against this regime from Russia, and it’s really devastating,” she said. “Today I think everyone is Ukrainian.”