It is the terrorist effect of the missiles launched by the Russians against the airport. The sirens sound and the dungeons fill up: “It’s no longer safe here”
FROM THE ENVIENT TO LEOPOL. Lost in traffic, the taxi driver continues to read the license plates in disbelief: “Kharkiv, Kharkiv, Kharkiv, Kiev, Kiev, Kharkiv, Lviv!”. This city has never been so full of people. It has two hundred thousand more inhabitants than before. Supermarket shelves have entire rows without even a can of chickpeas. Many ATMs keep the daily withdrawal limit at 1000 hryvnia, which is 30 euros. Lviv was the first refuge from bombing since the beginning of the war, but now even the western capital of Ukraine no longer seems like a safe place to live. It is the terrorist effect of the six missiles launched by the Russian army against the city airport, two days ago, between the buildings on the outskirts. A way to make it clear that everyone can be affected. The result can be seen well at the central train station. “My name is Olga Niglava, I’m 21, I’m an ice skater, I’m going away because you can’t stay here anymore.”
The girl has a backpack behind her, and another backpack carried in front. She is holding a soft toy that her boyfriend Volodymyr gave her and she is waiting for the first train to Poland. She explains that she escaped from Kharkiv with the blessing of her parents. She had to be sheltered in Lviv. “But now my father told me to try and cross the border.” Where do you want to go? “In Germany”. Do you know someone? “No”. How much money are you leaving with? “2000 heryvnia”. Olga Niglava has 61 euros in her pocket.
The sirens sound: «Air alarm!». The basement of the station is filled with the next departing refugees. Olga Niglava is running away twice. She left her city on the front line, where 263 civilians were killed, including 14 children. You now you must also leave this second-line city, which is no longer enough for everyone and does not ensure peace. Escape from a country where 30% of companies have stopped production, where it is pitch black every night and the same anti-missile sirens sound.
Ukraine today: 40 million inhabitants, of which 6.5 million are internally displaced people, while another 3 million and 200 are those who have sought shelter abroad: 2 million refugees are in Poland. These are the UN figures updated to 18 March. Ukraine is a country that is emptying itself. And Lviv is one of the gateways to Europe.
Beside the girl with the soft toy, here is Mrs Tatiana Popel with her two small children by the hand: «We are from Sumy, we are going to Poland. We have two small bags to travel, we only took one change. We poured the shampoo into small bottles like those to take on a plane. We have a pair of shoes each, those on the feet. But that’s okay: we are strong ». They are people who until 25 days ago had a normal life: «In Sumy, I worked for Sumygaz as a seamstress. We have sewn clothes for gas companies all over Ukraine ». And then everything was turned upside down, in a short time. “Yesterday we decided to leave. We stayed until the end, we lost four humanitarian corridors because we wanted to stay at home. But just yesterday they blew up the company I was working for. Our city is deserted, everyone is running away. The night before departure we did not sleep. Sumy is left with my husband and 17-year-old son. It was he who asked us to stay. ‘
To give the proportions. The war in Syria that began in 2011 has produced 11 million displaced persons. In less than a month, Ukrainian refugees, internal and external, numbered 9 million and 700 thousand. It is an exodus. The result of Russian bombing, of destruction, of death used for demonstration purposes, of terror. At the Lviv train station there is also Mrs. Natalia Majboroda, she is accompanying a departing friend and perhaps she will soon make the same choice. She comes from Zaporizhzhia, the city of the nuclear power plant: “Many people are leaving Ukraine, but I want to go back. I don’t feel at home anywhere except in Zaporizhzhia. Sure, there are explosions. But I wouldn’t have left if it wasn’t for the kids. The youngest did not want to leave the cellar after the sirens. He is 8 years old, he said: “Why do we go out if the siren starts again soon?”. In Lviv the sirens are rarer and lower, at least we can take a walk. Zaporizhzhia schools are closed. It does not matter. The children will study in the summer and we will recover, the important thing is that this war ends. Now the children are under stress, all their games are like building our tank and killing Putin ».
Lviv is a city under attack and full of life. Mayor Andriy Sadovy explained to CNN that the population is normally one million inhabitants, new residents are already over 200,000 and are increasing every day. “Now we host another city within the city. We spent a million dollars a day on Ukrainian refugees in Lviv ”. They are in schools, they are in theaters. They are in shared houses with other citizens. I’m on the trains leaving for peace.
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