Many Ukrainians are returning to areas controlled by their army again. They are disappointed in their existence as refugees. But what attracts foreigners to the war-ravaged country?
An hour before the train to Kyiv departed, a long queue had formed in front of the Przemysl train station in southern Poland. Hundreds of people wait patiently in front of passport control.
Behind them, on a special Russian broad gauge track, is the gleaming silver Intercity that is supposed to take them to the Ukraine.
Antonina Belinska pushes her big red suitcase on wheels. After the Russian war of aggression began a good six weeks ago, the 40-year-old cinema costume designer fled Kyiv. In Denmark she has found protection – and even work in her field. Nevertheless, she now wants to go back home for a week: “I can’t help it, I just long for my boyfriend.” The security situation has just relaxed a bit, says Antonina. “You can also get used to war.”
Fewer people are fleeing Ukraine
Apparently many Ukrainians think the same way at the moment. Most recently, the Ukrainian army has recaptured some cities and regions, especially in the north, while the Russians are concentrating their attacks on the east of the country. Fewer people are currently fleeing Ukraine than in the first weeks of the war – and more are daring to return to their country.
This is shown by the numbers of the Polish border guard. Around 28,500 people arrived in Poland from Ukraine on Sunday, a significant drop compared to March. On the same day, 19,400 people crossed the border towards Ukraine. In total, more than a quarter of a million men, women and children have entered Ukraine from Poland since the beginning of the war.
The change can be felt at the Medyka border crossing, 12 kilometers east of Przemysl. The big rush with hours of waiting is over – at least for the time being. Small groups of refugees come from the Ukraine. Their numbers are almost equal to those heading east to Ukraine.
Badly endured eating “foreign bread”.
In front of the train station in Przemysl, the queue of passengers for the train to Kyiv is slowly moving forward. Pensioner Vitalij (73) wants to go to his hometown of Chernihiv. On March 20, he fled to Poland with his wife, daughter and three grandchildren. The family is housed in a monastery in Tuchow, southern Poland. But Vitalij now returns alone. “I have to plant potatoes. My house is still standing, they bombed my neighbor’s.” The old man says of his time in Poland that he could hardly bear to eat “foreign bread”. And adds almost defiantly: “It’s always better at home.”
Tamara (70) and her daughter Irina (42) also want to return to Kyiv. They came to Poland at the beginning of March. The people in the neighboring country would have received them with great hospitality. “It’s quiet here, no grenades are flying. But it’s not a home, »says Tamara about Poland. And Irina says that the head of the beauty salon where she worked as a beautician in Kyiv has already asked all the employees to come back because business is starting up again.
Greg from Michigan carries a huge backpack on his back and pulls two heavy camouflage-look bags behind him. He served in the US Army for six years and was also in Afghanistan, says the 27-year-old with the dark full beard. Now he wants to fight in Ukraine. “I want to rid the Ukrainian people of the evil that Putin is doing to them.”
John from North Carolina also wants to liberate Ukraine from something – from the mines and duds lying around there. The 69-year-old from North Carolina, who prefers to keep his last name to himself, works for the American non-governmental organization “Bomb Defuser Without Borders”. Together with other specialists, he wants to help the Ukrainian army render unexploded ordnance harmless. The most dangerous are the booby traps that the Russians have attached to apparently harmless objects in many houses. “They’re homemade. You never know exactly how they work,” says the explosives expert. Then he gets on the train as one of the last.
Source: Stern
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