REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK: Despite few resources and crushing numbers, Moldovans are doing whatever they can to help. Via MaggieRulli.
ABC News' Maggie Rullie travels along the borders of Moldova, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, as the neighbors of Ukraine open their doors to the crush of refugees.Our team spent five days tracing the southern border of Ukraine.
Despite few resources and crushing numbers, Moldovans are doing whatever they can to help. Since the start of the war, more than 380,000 people have fled through the country, more than 15% of the country’s entire population and the most per capita of any other country.We discovered an old movie theater in the country’s capital of Chisinau that had been left standing empty for four years, now converted into a shelter for up to 200 people.
While we’re at the shelter, a tractor pulls up to drop off supplies. On it -- a large Z, a symbol that’s now become synonymous with Putin’s forces in Russia and is often seen on the tanks there. A tractor with support for Russia, dropping off items that locals have donated to help Ukrainians feeling the Russian attack? Nothing about the scene makes sense, but it’s perhaps the best explanation of life in Moldova.
Romania is also a NATO and European Union member. Attacking it would have worldwide implications. But even with these assurances, people here still live in fear.Romania has the largest border with Ukraine of any EU country. Driving along the winding road as it hugs the dividing line between the two countries, we see mostly vast, empty miles. It makes sense that it’s a well-known route for illegal crossings. That could mean men trying to flee Ukraine.
And as war rages on, the numbers of those fleeing only keep increasing. We hear rumblings from NGOs and volunteers, even other refugees, about hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Ukrainians waiting just on the other side of the border. People want to stay in Ukraine, but may have to flee as the fighting moves west. We ask for numbers of those at the border, but no one is able to tell us for certain.
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