Ukrainian refugees reveal terrifying reality of Russian attack and scramble to escape

Hundreds of thousands more Ukrainians have been displaced, trapped in a human convoy of misery trying to escape Russia’s brutal onslaught.

The world has changed fundamentally in the past 48 hours.

The unprecedented assault by Russian forces on Ukraine has up-ended global politics, economics and alliances and possibly now borders.

But even before the invasion, precipitated by more than 160 missile strikes, there was an incredible 1.5 million internally displaced Ukrainians from eight years of hostilities in the east of their country.

Now in the past 48 hours you can add another estimated 350,000, many trapped in a human convoy of misery trying to escape the brutal onslaught by road, rail and on foot.

Ukrainian citizens carry suitcases after crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border on February 24, into Medyka. Picture: Omar Marques/Getty Images

Vladimir Putin’s ground forces are sacking cities, town and villages from the east, north and south, leaving Ukraine’s western border currently the only escape route and it is jammed.

“We just packed up our house in Kyiv and left,” a father of two said, on condition we quote him only as Anton.

Twitter photo from Dan Rivers @danriversitv "Kharkiv Subway tonight. Like something from the Blitz in London during WW2. Shocking. Where on earth will this all end?”

“Our friends left already, a lot of people we know left but we thought we would be okay here but now we have to leave, where we are not sure but have friend in Lviv.

“Life in Ukraine already changed. Since 2014 people don’t want to live next to airports or a railway station and now this fear come true.”

Also looking to the road to Lviv, the largest city in Ukraine’s west with a population of 700,000 was Tetiana Kashtanova.

“Many people are trying to leave right now so we have a giant traffic jam but if there is an option for us to leave to the West we will take it,” she said.

Some believe Lviv, 70km from the Polish border may also not be safe and are heading to another country.

“Anyone who can is fleeing,” Krisztian Szavla, one of the first refugees to arrive in Hungary from Ukraine’s western Transcarpathia region, said.

Others are heading to Poland and Romania, which have already set up refugee centres, or Moldova, Solvakia and Hungary which had sent troops to their respective borders to deal with an influx of displaced.

Some families have fled to Romania, crossing from Ukraine into Sighetu Marmatiei. Picture: Andreea Campeanu/Getty Images

Officially the United Nations say they have recorded 100,000 Ukrainians as being displaced by the fighting.

“We are particularly worried about displacement – about people on the move,” Filippo Grandi who is in Kyiv said.

“We estimate that more than 100,000 must have already moved out of their homes in Ukraine seeking safety in other parts of the country.”

Train and bus stations in Ukraine are jammed with a tide of people with suitcases and some just sacks carrying their clothes.

“Everyone is scared,” Kyiv local Julia said. “On the streets people just leave but no one sure where to go.”

People walk out of a train at a metro station in Kyiv early on February 24. Picture: Daniel Leal/AFP

Victoria Vota in Kharkiv in Ukraine’s north woke to the pounding of shelling.

“My neighbours were ringing my doorbell telling me it’s time to leave and maybe evacuate from the city but we were not sure if it was safe to evacuate,” she said.

Parts of that city are already occupied by Russian Special Forces with reinforcements streaming across the border from Russian ally Belarus. Victoria may no longer have an option to flee.

Many blame the mixed messages. For weeks the Ukranian Government has sought to assure its population that the country was strong and safe, there was no need for panic buying or displacement and they should just pack a bag with three days worth of rations and with all valuable documents like passports to leave if required at short notice.

But no-one said when that time to leave was such was the speed of the Russian assault and now many too are now bunkering down.

A scheduled train from Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine arrived Thursday afternoon in the Polish town of Przemysl, near Ukraine’s western border, carrying a few hundred passengers.

Ukrainian citizens take an overnight rest in a temporary shelter after arriving in Poland on a train from Kyiv. Picture: Omar Marques/Getty Images

The passengers of various ages, arriving with bags and backpacks, some were returning to homes in Poland and other fleeing war.

The chief of Poland’s border guards, Gen. Tomasz Praga, said there was a visible increase in the number of people wanting to cross into Poland.

Officials said Poland has prepared at least eight centres with food, medical care and places to rest.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that “innocent people are being killed” in Ukraine and appealed to the Poles to extend every possible assistance to the Ukrainians who have found themselves in need of help.

Originally published as Ukrainian refugees reveal terrifying reality of Russian attack and scramble to escape