ZAHONY, Hungary (AP) – Some of the nearly 1 million people who fled Russia’s devastating war in Ukraine in recent days are considered the most vulnerable in society, unable to make their own escape decisions and requiring careful help to make the trip to safety.
At the train station in the Hungarian city of Zahoni on Wednesday, more than 200 disabled Ukrainians – residents of two care homes in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv – dismounted in the cold wind on the train platform after a difficult escape from the violence that engulfed Ukraine.
The refugees, many of them children, have severe mental and physical disabilities and were evacuated from their care facilities after Russia’s attack on the capital intensified.
“It was not safe to stay there, there were rockets, they were firing on Kyiv,” said Larisa Leonidovna, director of the Svyatoshinky orphanage in Kyiv. “We spent more than an hour underground during the bombing.”
Russia’s growing attack on Ukraine forcing hundreds of thousands to leave the country in the last six days in what a UN official predicts could turn into “Europe’s biggest refugee crisis of the century”.
The UN refugee agency says more than 874,000 people have fled Ukraine after Russia’s invasion last week and the figure “rises exponentially”, putting it on track to cross the 1 million mark on Wednesday.
More than half of the refugees – nearly 454,000 – went to Poland, while more than 116,300 entered Hungary and more than 79,300 moved to Moldova. Another 67,000 fled to Slovakia, and about 69,000 went to other European countries.
While many of those who flee are full-fledged adults who choose to take long and sometimes dangerous journeys to bring themselves and their families to safety, others are at the mercy of those who care for them to save them from danger.
“These children need a lot of attention, they have diseases and they need special care,” said Leonidovna, director of an orphanage in Kyiv.
Moving from the train in groups of 30, the children – also from the Darnytsky Orphanage in Kyiv – were escorted to buses waiting to be taken to Opole, Poland, where they will be accommodated and given extra care.
“There are a total of 216 people, the children and their companions,” said Victoria Nikolaevna, deputy director of the Darnicki Home.
Cold weather in Eastern Europe on Wednesday made conditions even more difficult for those fleeing Ukraine’s neighbors.
In the Palanca border area of southern Moldova, a country that shares a long border with Ukraine, temperatures hovered around sub-zero and fresh snow covered the ground.
Mothers with young children came wrapped in blankets and clothes, but the cold weather made the already desperate situation worse.
Julia, a 32-year-old mother with a 3-year-old child, tried to calm her son, who was burning with fever. She felt helpless, she said, but she was proud to have made the decision to help her family.
“Thank God I can protect my family, but I didn’t want to leave my country. But I had to find another way to protect my family, “she told the Associated Press.
Overcoming snow and sub-zero temperatures, thousands of refugees continued to flee Ukraine to neighboring Romania through the Siret border crossing.
Alina Onitsa, a 41-year-old Red Cross volunteer in Siret, said the frosty weather and snow only contributed to the challenges and needs of war-displaced refugees.
“It made it harder because many people left their homes a few days ago and all they had were clothes on their backs,” she said. “They wanted gloves, hats and blankets. This is a humanitarian crisis and we hope it will end soon. “
Nastya Kononchuk, who hopes to reach the Bulgarian capital Sofia to wait for the war with her dog, said she is from the Black Sea city of Odessa but lives in Kyiv. Her husband took her to the Romanian border, but then returned to join the Ukrainian armed forces.
“It was a very long road and very scary,” she said of the trip when she heard the roar of rockets around. You don’t understand: “Is it ours or is it an enemy?”
“Maybe it’s good that we don’t have children now,” she added. “But we have our dog, it’s our child.”
Victoria Baibara, who left Kyiv two days ago with her 6-year-old son after witnessing an escalating bomb in the capital, arrived in Romania on Wednesday and will travel to Istanbul to stay with friends, she said.
“It’s so hard, it’s hard for a child, we can’t explain to him why we have to leave home, why we hear these bombs,” the 29-year-old said. “He is also very scared. And I’m very scared. … It’s so cold and it was hard to stay with a child in the snow. “
Maria Unhuryan from Chernivtsi in western Ukraine came by car to Siret with her 9-year-old daughter and other relatives, all women.
“I am in a lot of pain. … Just pain. “It’s a lot of pain for my country and my people,” she said. “She is 9 years old and does not understand the situation. She just wants to eat pizza in Italy and go to Disney in France.
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AP journalists Stephen McGrath and Renata Brito of Siret, Romania, and Helena Alves of Palanca, Moldova, contributed to the report.
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Follow the PA’s coverage of the crisis in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine