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Ukraine's refugee emergency - 9th March 2022
1.5 million refugees from Ukraine are seeking safety. The UN’s worried about this situation, which is the biggest emergency in Europe since World War II.
Many refugees have arrived with few possessions. They often only have the clothes they are wearing. Anna's a teacher who’s travelled for three days.
Anna Golovko: "I'm, I'm from Kyiv, Ukraine and we are going to Krakow, Poland. It takes three days to take this place."
In the neighbouring countries, refugees are met by volunteers. They organise food and clothing for them. There's also transport to travel to other cities. People all over Europe have driven their own vehicles to the borders. They're offering to drive refugees to family and friends.
But men between 18 and 60 can't leave Ukraine now. They have to stay and defend the country. So, most refugees are women, children and elderly people. But there are also foreign workers, students and Roma people trying to escape.
Many people still in Ukraine are homeless or unable to leave. The UN warns that about four million more people will become refugees. Russia had promised humanitarian corridors, which would let people leave dangerous areas. But this didn’t happen. Now, the only safe corridors lead into Russia.
As many people run from Ukraine, doctors and paramedics are travelling there to help.
Mike Hughes: "I’m going purely as a humanitarian to obviously assisting the wounded and hopefully, kind of, prevent some of the loss of life that's currently happening out there. I'm also going to go out there and try and train some of the civilians and some of the military in medical treatments and techniques that we use in the British services."
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