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Ukrainian refugee crisis - 9th March 2022
In excess of 1.5 million people fleeing conflict have been forced to Ukraine's borders, resulting in what the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi refers to as the most rapidly developing crisis on the continent since World War II.
Abandoning their livelihoods, refugees fled for their lives, on foot, with no more than a single bag. Here's a Kyivan teacher, Anna.
Anna Golovko: "I'm, I'm from Kyiv, Ukraine and we are going to Krakow, Poland. It takes three days to take this place."
Volunteers greet the refugees at the borders with supplies and organise transport for those seeking further journeys to relatives and friends in other locations. All across Europe, people have driven their own vehicles to the borders offering free rides and even shelter to the refugees.
Martial law in Ukraine has made it mandatory for men 18 to 60 years old to remain and oppose the invading forces, which means those crossing the borders are largely children, women and the elderly. However, foreign workers, international students and Roma are still stranded in search of a way out of the warzone.
Internally, Ukraine sees thousands more uprooted or desperate to get out of cities pummelled by Russian forces. The UN cautions that we are possibly facing a further four million people pushed out of Ukraine in the upcoming weeks.
Humanitarian corridors permitting civilians safe passage out of the danger zones had been promised by Russia, but thus far, these agreed routes have not been delivered and others now opened by the military head directly to the Russian border.
As many flee Ukraine, medical practitioners are heading into the danger zone offering their aid to those left behind.
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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