Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
ABC News
ABC News
National

Thousands of refugees flee Ukraine into neighbouring EU countries as men are told to stay and fight

Refugees arrive by bus at the border crossing between Poland and Ukraine in Medyka, Poland. (Reuters: Kacper Pempel)

About 85 kilometres from the western Ukraine city of Lviv, at the crossing into Poland, the roads were packed with cars and people hugging loved ones — some saying goodbye.

At the southern Polish city of Medyka, an internet map site showed a third of the roads congested with heavy traffic at one point on Friday. 

"It is only women and children [coming through] because for men it is forbidden," said Ludmila, 30.

Women and children flee Ukraine for Poland

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. But images emerged today featuring men of this age having crossed the border into Poland. 

A family exits the border into Poland after crossing over to flee violence in Ukraine. (Reuters: Bryan Woolston)

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.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians, mostly women and children, crossed into Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia on Friday 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 1 million people, authorities said wait times to cross the border ranged from 6 to 12 hours in some places.

Up to 5 million refugees expected

UN aid agencies say the war could drive up to 5 million people to flee abroad, with up to 3 million heading to Poland alone. They said fuel, cash and medical supplies were running low in parts of Ukraine.

A husband and wife are reunited in Medyka, Poland after travelling separately through the border crossing. (Reuters: Bryan Woolston)

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 on Sunday.

Germany has already said the bloc would 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.

Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 have been told to stay and fight.  (AFP: Daniel Leal)

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 Paweł Szefernaker said Ukrainian bus drivers were unable to drive across the border as conscription-age men were being held back.

Michał Mielniczuk, a spokesman for the southern Polish region of Podkarpackie, said temporary accommodation was being offered to people arriving.

A bus driver negotiates heavy traffic in Poland while transporting people who have recently fled violence in Ukraine. (Reuters: Bryan Woolston)

"The vast majority continue on to other places throughout Poland after receiving a warm meal," he told the PAP news agency.

Calls for blood donations as volunteers provide assistance

On the border with northern Romania, women were crying as they bid goodbye to male loved ones, setting off to cross into Sighetu Marmatiei, a remote town on the banks of the Tisa river, a Reuters witness said.

Activists and volunteers have been providing shelter and provisions to refugees in Poland. (Reuters: Bryan Woolston)

Long queues had formed as cars waited to board a ferry over the Danube river into Isaccea, a town between Moldova and the Black Sea, local media in Romania showed.

Slovak authorities urged people to donate blood and set up hospitals with 5,380 beds assigned for the army or NATO use.

Across central Europe, on NATO's eastern flank, volunteers were putting up messages on social media to organise housing and transport for people arriving from the borders.

Activists were setting up food and hot drink distribution points and vets were offering to take care of pets.

Authorities in Poland and Romania lifted pandemic quarantine rules for those arriving from outside the EU and, from Friday, Ukrainians could get COVID-19 vaccinations in Poland.

A child walks to a bus after crossing the Polish border to flee violence in Ukraine with her mother and grandmother. (Reuters: Bryan Woolston)

Hungary said it would open a humanitarian corridor for citizens from third-party countries like Iran or India fleeing Ukraine, letting them in without visas and taking them to the nearest airport at Debrecen.

Bulgaria started issuing passports to its citizens in Kyiv who needed travel documents and had sent four buses to the Ukrainian capital to evacuate people. Some 250,000 ethnic Bulgarians live in Ukraine.

ABC/wires

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.