Long queues on both sides of the border at Medyka. On one side, women and children who want to leave Ukraine to escape the war. In the other, relatives who have gone there to pick them up from all over Europe. One of the families that has just arrived is Tatiana’s: “To get to the border, I walked 30 kilometers with my children. The youngest is seven years old. We walked all night. It was very very hard to cross the border. There were a lot of people, there were people walking above us and everyone was stressed and scared.”
Tatiana’s story is one of those told in this video, reflecting the desperation and uncertainty of hundreds of people leaving Ukraine. In Medyka there are also hundreds of supportive people who distribute warm clothes, SIM cards, water, coffee or hot soup. Others even offer their own home. On the road you can see advertisements like this: “I can take you to Denmark, Germany or Poland, whatever. I have three seats in my car and I would like to pick up a woman with children, for example”.
Until now, Poland was one of the most radical countries in defense of a Europe with closed borders, but everything has changed when the refugees have begun to be Ukrainians. The Government has even withdrawn the obligation to show a passport and has completely opened the border. It expects to receive between one and four million refugees. Tatiana, like most people here, finds it hard to believe what is happening.
In the video report of this news you can also see the reverse scene. Men who do not run away from the invasion, but go to war, like Nikolai, who explains: “In Estonia I heard that the war was starting, so I quit my job and found a driver to bring me back home. My wife was in our house in the Ukraine, she called me very nervous and crying. She couldn’t continue in Europe”.
These testimonies and other voices are included in the video report that accompanies this news.
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