Photo: Justin Spike/AP/Shutterstock
According to the AP, the residents and their chaperones weathered Russian gunfire and air strikes before departing their homes with the help of Kyiv’s deputy mayor, the city’s child protection office and the Catholic relief organizationCaritas.
“Territorially, the orphanages are where the rockets flew, where there were bursts of rifle fire. A metro station near the orphanage was blown up,” the Svyatoshinksy director, Larissa Leonidovna, told the AP. “We spent more than an hour underground during a bombing.”
Justin Spike/AP/Shutterstock
“In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of one million refugees from Ukraine to neighbouring countries,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi,said in a tweeton Wednesday.
The group of young people from the orphanages traveled to Hungary instead of waiting untold hours to cross into Poland.
“It is very difficult, you can see that it is very difficult, they all need special care and support,” Leonidovna told the AP of the children in her care.
The UNHCR estimates 4 million people may flee Ukraine, whose total population is 44 million, in the coming weeks and months and said the situation appears to be Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century.
A spokesperson for the agency praised Ukraine’s neighbors for keeping their borders open to civilians as they pour out of the country.
“We have seen tremendous solidarity and hospitality from the countries receiving refugees, including from the authorities and local communities,“Shabia Mantoo said in a statement.
The young people — who have severe physical and mental disabilities, according to the AP — boarded four buses in Zahony to complete a second, 350-mile leg of their journey.
In Opole, they will be placed in rehabilitation centers, according to the report.
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukraine PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyycalled for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
source: people.com
