With men fighting in Ukraine, women and children flee alone

Of the hundreds of refugees gathered on the grounds of a village school in eastern Hungary almost all were women and children who left their husbands fathers brothers and sons behind to fight in Ukraines resistance to the deadly Russian invasionI have brothers they are fighting now said Olga Skliarova a 34yearold resident of Ukraines capital KyivMen are not allowed to cross the border so they helped us to get to the border and went back to Kyiv to fightThe exodus of refugees from the war in Ukraine is rapidly growing in the eastern countries of the European Union with more than 675000 people fleeing to neighbouring countries since the Russian invasion began a number that will only grow according to the UN refugee agencyShabia Mantoo a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said Tuesday that at this rate the situation looks set to become Europes largest refugee crisis this centuryAn order from Ukraines government prohibiting men aged 18 to 60yearsold from leaving the country so as to keep them available for military conscription means that many women and children must seek safety on their ownIrina Yarimchuk an accountant from the western Ukrainian town of Kalush travelled the five hours to the Hungarian village of Tiszabecs early Tuesday with her 14yearold son and 1yearold daughterThrough tears she said her brother had joined the Ukrainian army and she was very worried about his lifeI love you so much Keep yourself strong We will win and we will see you soon I hope she said in an emotional message to her brother who is stationed near Ukraines border with BelarusAfter a missile hit the nearby IvanoFrankivsk airport as the Russian invasion began Thursday Yarimchuk who is planning to stay with relatives in Prague spent her days and nights shuttling her family from their home to a bomb shelter as air raid sirens blared every few hoursFrom that day we stay outside our home every evening she said of the five panicked nights before she left I was afraid for my childrenSkliarova recounted keeping a full backpack of clothes and emergency supplies that she brought with her each time she took shelter in her Kyiv apartment building basementIts an evil evil feeling she said Scary stress shock Every hour in the night we got up to run into the basement We slept dressed to get up and runIn Poland too it was largely Ukrainian women arriving with their children as Russian President Vladimir Putins forces intensified their attacks on civilian targets in a campaign that is becoming deadlier for childrenUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the European Parliament on Tuesday that Russian forces had killed 16 children the day before as he appealed to EU leaders to accept Ukraine in the blocAmong those fleeing was Oxana Sereduk who arrived by car in Medyka Poland with her two daughters and grandchildren Tuesday morning Her daughter Mariana drove the car sometimes with her 16monthold baby sitting on her lap and nursingI am mostly afraid for the children Sereduk saidMaria Lisicka took her two children and fled when shelling began in Lutsk western UkraineI will do everything for my children she said I didnt want to take them away I wanted them to be at home but what can be done I want their psyche to be normal The most important thing is children I dont care about the restAt the bus station in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv Pavlo Bilodid wiped away tears as he kissed his wife and 2yearold daughter Maria goodbye helping them board the bus to PolandWrought with emotion as three generations of the female members of his family made the trip to safety he told The Associated Press they had fled Kyiv after fighting there intensifiedSorry he said taking a moment to compose himself Its terrible because it was so unexpected and nobody was prepared for this situation and we believe that we will see them soon Im sure that we will see them soonBilodid 33 and his father stayed behind Were staying here and we have to volunteer and we will do here what we can do here in Lviv and if we will need we will go to Kyiv to fight he saidUkrainian singer Jamala who won the 2016 Eurovision contest with a song about the 1944 deportations of Crimean Tatars by Josef Stalin was also among those who fled Ukraine with her two childrenA Crimean Tatar Jamala who escaped to Turkey told reporters in Istanbul that she never imagined she would share the same fate as her grandmother who she said had just 15 minutes to pack during the forced deportations of 1944The singer said she left Kyiv for Ternopil in western Ukraine where she thought her family would be safe but decided to cross into Romania when she woke up to the sound of explosions there too Her husband remained in UkraineBack in Hungary many of the women and children at the school in Tiszabecs hoped to reach destinations in the Czech Republic and Poland but difficulties arose arranging transport from the remote village on the Ukrainian borderOur biggest lack in recent days has been transportation said Lajos Revesz of Hungarian Baptist Aid which is running the reception center at the schoolVolunteers from several countries in the region have begun arriving in Tiszabecs to bring newlyarrived refugees farther into the EUIvan Mursha a native of Khust in western Ukraine who lives in Brno Czech Republic drove more than seven hours to offer free rides to anyone wishing to join himWe are all Ukrainians We must unite and help each other Mursha saidSkliarova before departing for Brno in Murshas 12passenger van said that her cousins 15yearold son was shot by Russian forces on Monday while riding in a car in Brovary on the outskirts of Kyiv The boy she said survivedWhen asked what she expects to find when she returns to Kyiv she said simply RuinsI think someone has to stop Putin she said I think there must be at least one person in the world who can stop this paranoiac Hes illThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no 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