Mass exodus from Ukraine growing bigger

The Report Desk

Published: March 6, 2022, 09:15 PM

Mass exodus from Ukraine growing bigger

The fighting has driven more than 1.5 million people to leave Ukraine for neighbouring countries in the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Sunday.

Millions more displaced internally are heading for the relative safety of western Ukraine.

Men of a fighting age have been ordered to stay, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on his people to do what they can to repel the Russians.

Kateryna Laskari, a production company executive, left her home city Kyiv soon after the invasion began.

She reached a small village 50 km (31 miles) away where her family has a house, and has stayed there with her three-year-old son, Simon, her pregnant sister, who is due to give birth in two weeks and their parents.

"To tell the truth, and it feels like 10 years," she told Reuters via Zoom of the first 10 days of the war.

"Of course, I'm frightened as is everybody, but I have so many people I'm responsible for. I'm responsible for my family, I'm responsible for my business," she added.

"But to tell the truth, I thought I would be even more frightened. Now I feel like a soldier. I feel that I have a lot of energy to just to fight, because I know that we will win."

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