MEDYKA, Poland (AP) — As Russia launched its war in Ukraine last month, exhausted and frightened refugees arrived in neighboring countries. They carried whatever they could grab in a hurry. M…
By SRDJAN NEDELJKOVIC and DAVID KEYTON
“At the beginning, we thought that this would end pretty soon,” Olha Homienko, a 50-year-old woman from Kharkiv said. “First of all, nobody could believe Russia would attack us, and we thought that it would end quickly.”Homienko’s hometown of Kharkiv is among several Ukrainian cities and towns that have been encircled and shelled heavily by the Russians. Refugees coming from besieged towns have told of destruction, death and hunger.
“Why is he bombing peaceful homes? Why there are so many victims, blood, and killed children, body parts everywhere?” Lutsenko pleaded. “It is horrible. Sleepless nights. Parents are crying, there are no children any more.” In Przemysl, another Polish town where refugees from Ukraine arrive by train, 66-year-old Nelya Kot from Chernihiv said she remembers waking up to the sound of air raid and explosions when the war started on Feb. 24.
“Today, there is no water, no gas, no electricity in the city, Kot gasped. “People are in total isolation, they drink water from the Desna river.” Mostly women and children – Ukrainian men from age 18 to 60 have been banned from leaving the country and stay to fight — the refugees have sought to rebuild their lives in neighboring countries, seek jobs and start schools. Some have moved on other nations where they have relatives.
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