MEDYKA, Poland—Anna Gorpenich and her two children left the war-struck city of Sumy in Eastern Ukraine when the first safe-evacuation corridor arranged with Russia was opened.
Forty hours later, on the afternoon of March 10, the family arrived alongside thousands of Ukrainians streaming into Poland at the border crossing in Medyka.
Sumy is one of several cities on the frontier of the Russian invasion in Eastern Ukraine. Russian tanks rolled through the streets of Sumy on Feb. 24, the first day of the war in Ukraine. The surrounding areas have seen ongoing fighting since.
Gorpenich said the situation in Trostyanets and Okhtyrka, two smaller cities south of Sumy, is particularly dire. The residents don’t have heat, water, or electricity.
“They have nothing. Today, they were supposed to open a safety corridor, and the people, including our friends with two children, they were supposed to be able to evacuate, but Russia didn’t let the people go,” Gorpenich told The Epoch Times.
“It’s horrible. There is nothing left there. Nothing,” she said, before breaking into tears and hugging her 10-year-old daughter. “Somebody has got to put a stop to it. They don’t bomb infrastructure, they drop huge bombs on people’s houses.”
Gorpenich plans to live with her mother in Poland until she decides what to do.
“I’m 32 years old, and I fit all my 32 years in three backpacks,” she said. “I don’t even have words to describe what is happening.”
The area beyond the Polish passport control building was crowded with volunteers on March 10, some from as far as the United States and England. They offered the arriving refugees hot food, clothing, personal care items, SIM cards, and directions for transportation further west into Poland.
Polish soldiers helped to carry heavy bags for women and children as they made their way to shuttle buses. Volunteers waded through the crowd with trays of hot chocolate and crates of apples.
“I feel more calm now. We crossed the border, and there are no more bombs,” said Lyubov Romanova, who fled Kharkiv, another city on the front line of the invasion, told The Epoch Times.
“We’re coming from Kharkiv. We’re fleeing from bombs. Bombs hit three floors of our 16-floor building. We have no lights, no water, no life.”
Lena Yegorova and her 13-year-old daughter Polina also left Kharkiv. After five days of traveling by car, Polina said it felt “great” to finally cross into Poland. Her mother was in a more somber mood.
“I feel heavy. I want to be home. We’re on foreign land, after all,” Yegorova told The Epoch Times.
Some stay in the countries in which they arrive. Others travel further. Yegorova intends to join her eldest daughter in Spain. A family from Kharkiv who traveled with her are destined for Italy.
Others just want to return home.
“We'll wait for the war to be over so we can go back home,” said Olena Sayenko, who traveled with her daughter, Kristina, from Cherkasy in central Ukraine.
“We feel safe now, there is not as much fear in general.
“They gave us food and drink here, and now we’re ready to go.”
Two of the men in her family have joined the military. One is on active duty.
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