In the distance, there are dull claps of artillery, which sound like thunder. On the border of the suburb of Irpin and Kiev, Konstantin stands under a viaduct. He wipes the sleet and sweat from his dark blond quills, seen in video footage taken by Ukrainian photographer Max Rokotanski with NRC has shared.
“This is the third day that we are trying to cover the five kilometers to Kiev. But we always have to go from cellar to cellar,” says Konstantin, who does not give his last name. “The Russians are running around in the city. They put up barricades in the streets. They’ve been here for two days. They loot, kill. And this is not only true in Irpin, this is also true in Butya – this is everywhere around Kiev.”
Under the level crossing are other refugees, journalists with shard vests and volunteers with Kalashnikovs. It smells like burning gunpowder, says Rokotanski.
Early last week, the Russian army reached the towns bordering Kiev, where heavy fighting has been going on ever since. According to local volunteers, 70 civilians, including children, have been killed in the violence in the suburb of Irpin in recent days. This number cannot be verified at this time. “Our politicians have to solve it with the Red Cross,” says Konstantin. “Babies have all been born in the past few days and they are still sitting in those basements with no electricity or water.”
Millions of refugees
About two million Ukrainians have fled their country since Russia invaded with heavy artillery on Feb. 24, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Tuesday. The UN is preparing to help four million refugees, about a tenth of the population of Ukraine.
Whether it will be enough remains to be seen. “It depends on how the war will develop,” Grandi told Reuters news agency. “Is the front rapidly moving west? Then a huge group of people arrives because many people have sought shelter there.” It is not known how many people have been displaced, but there are many signs that a large proportion of Ukrainians have fled.
On social media, the desperation is reflected in small messages on Facebook and Telegram. “House for sale for 18,000 hryvnja” (500 euros converted). “I’ll trade my phone for 20 liters of gasoline,” “Kharkov residents, HELP. My girlfriend is 72 years old and lives in the center with her 80-year-old sister, they don’t come out of the apartment and have no food anymore!” “Urgent need a bus. I repeat: URGENTLY.” The messages cannot be checked immediately, but more are added every minute.
Also read: Taking refugees in your home – what to do and what not to do?
The UN expects that in time a second group of people will cross the border: the vulnerable who had to do without help and therefore flee more slowly.
On the banks of the Irpin River, near Kiev, an elderly woman stood in slippers on Tuesday, says photographer Rokotanski, who had walked the ten kilometers from the village of Vorzel. “She had a few slices of bread in her pocket,” he says. “I helped her cross the river, where she was taken into town by ambulance.”
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