Poland Exodus could be only the beginning

When, at the end of January, Poland’s deputy interior minister, MaciejWąsik, said his country had “to be prepared for a wave of up to a million people” in the event of a major Russian invasion of Ukraine, many thought he was exaggerating. Just five days after the military attack ordered by Vladimir Putin, over 280,000 Ukrainians have entered Poland. At this rate, Warsaw could be facing Europe’s largest wave of refugees since the second world war.

-  Lorenzo Tondo

The village of Medyka in southeastern Poland is the main border crossing with Ukraine. Thousands of refugees have crossed by bus, car and on foot. They are mostly women and children.

After Kyiv decreed a full military mobilisation, Ukrainian men aged 18-60 are forbidden to leave the country. “I came here with my sisters, my mother and my grandmother,’’ Arina, 21, from Vinnytsya, said. “My father stayed in Ukraine and we think about and-him all the time. It was a difficult journey to reach Poland and we don’t know what the future holds. But we are not alone. We are holding hands with each other.’’

Until a few weeks ago, Arina said, the possibility of finding herself in a war was as distant as in any other European country. Today, she and tens of thousands have been forced to leave their homes, their loved ones, their cities and their country, which is at risk of belonging to someone else soon.