Tens of thousands of Ukrainians, mostly women and children, crossed into Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia yesterday as Russian missiles pounded the capital Kyiv and men of fighting age were told to remain.
Many waited for hours in freezing conditions to leave Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion, with lines of cars snaking for several kilometres towards some border crossings.
In Poland, which has the region’s largest Ukrainian community of about 1mn people, authorities said wait times to cross the border ranged from 6 to 12 hours in some places.
At Medyka in the south of Poland, some 85km from Lviv in western Ukraine, roads were packed with cars, police directing traffic, and people hugging loved ones after they arrived on the Polish side.
An Internet map site showed a third of the way congested with heavy traffic at one point yesterday.
“It is only women and children (coming through) because for men it is forbidden. We leave all our fathers, men, husbands at home,” said Ludmila, 30.
When asked if she was worried about her husband, Ludmila broke down in tears.
Ukrainian rules restrict men aged 18-60, who could be conscripted, from crossing the borders.
Marta Buach, 30, from Lviv, said her husband was not allowed to cross with her at Medyka. “In Lviv it is ok but in other cities it is really a catastrophe. Kyiv was shelled, other small cities were shelled, we were hearing bombing everywhere,” she said.
UN aid agencies say the war could drive up to 5mn people to flee abroad, with up to 3mn heading to Poland alone.
They said fuel, cash and medical supplies were running low in parts of Ukraine.
At least 100,000 people are already uprooted in Ukraine after fleeing their homes since Russia launched its attacks, the UN refugee agency said.
European Union interior ministers will discuss the fallout of the crisis tomorrow. Germany has already said the bloc will accept anyone escaping the violence.
“We need to do everything to accept without delay the people who are now fleeing the bombs, the tanks,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters as she arrived for a separate meeting with her EU counterparts in Brussels.
Border authorities said 35,000 people had entered Poland from Ukraine since Thursday, while in Romania, roughly 19,000 Ukrainians had arrived in two days.
Poland’s deputy interior minister Pawe? Szefernaker said Ukrainian bus drivers were unable to drive across the border as conscription-age men were being held back.