Scared and exhausted, Ukrainians crowd into border gateway city

By Jeyhun Aliyev

LVIV, Ukraine (AA) - Thousands of sleepless, scared, and exhausted Ukrainians are flooding into the western city of Lviv via evacuation trains from combat zones amid Russia's ongoing attacks across the country.

What seems like an unending flow of women and children arrive in Lviv – the country’s sixth-largest city and only about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Polish border – in overcrowded trains, with some of them having traveled over 10 hours standing.

The train cars were overloaded, though the state railways put more trains into service to rescue people due to the Russian war on Ukraine, which has now entered its 14th day.

Meanwhile, masses of people were seen amid scattered snow flurries queuing up for hot food and drinks provided by aid groups and volunteers.

Not leaving behind beloved pets – mainly cats and dogs – during the evacuation, many women barely holding back their tears stood with their weary children in long lines for free buses to the Polish border.

Along with buses, around five trains also leave for Poland every day, though big suitcases are not permitted on train cars.

With the continued Russian attacks, many men and some women voluntarily joined the armed forces to defend the homeland. Mainly for that reason, men of fighting age are generally not allowed to leave the country, with men even age 60 or older staying behind to defend their homeland.

- Safer place to live

Sitting on her luggage next to a makeshift fire pit at the train station, Ermina, 36, told Anadolu Agency that she and her little son were waiting for her husband to come from Dnipro, eastern Ukraine, adding that they want to go to Poland for a safer life.

Ermina said she has been waiting for her husband for three hours, adding that she is not sure when he will arrive in Lviv.

Olya, 33, said she with her family and two children have been waiting for two days in front of the station, as they want to move further west into Europe for a better life.

Kirill, her 12-year old son, said he was "worried" about what's happening around him. "It's scary," he added.

Some 2 million people from Ukraine have so far fled to neighboring countries, according to the UN refugee agency.

- ‘No stop to bombardment’

Yulia and Natalia, who also came from the eastern city of Kharkiv and have been waiting at the station for three days, said they want to move to the Baltic nation of Lithuania on a "volunteer bus."

"We are very terrified. It is a terrible situation. Our neighborhood in Kharkiv was completely bombed," said Natalia.

"My parents stood there. We are from Saltivka, which was the scariest neighborhood," Yulia added, referring to a large residential area in northeastern Kharkiv.

On social media, regional police official Serhiy Bolvinov said on Tuesday that 170 civilians, including five children, have been killed across Kharkiv since the beginning of Russia's war on Ukraine nearly two weeks ago.

"The bombardment didn't stop there at all. They (Russian forces) don’t let the people take a break. People can't even go to the shop or a pharmacy," Yulia lamented.

Saying that everything is closed in Saltivka, Natalia added that no humanitarian aid has reached the area either.

"The humanitarian aid somehow reaches areas just around the subway station. I called my neighbors. We live couple of kilometers from the subway station, but no humanitarian aid is being delivered to that area,” she explained.

“No bread, no water, nothing. They barely deliver water.”

Yulia said they spent over a week in a basement shelter, and couldn't even go home as it was "scary."

"We came right from the shelter to the stain station. We came by an evacuation train. We spent 20 hours standing on the train," she added.

Russia's war on Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, has drawn international condemnation, led to financial sanctions on Moscow, and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.

At least 474 civilians have been killed and 861 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, according to the UN, which noted that conditions on the ground make it difficult to verify the true number.