Ukraine war: Refugees desperately try to pile onto trains headed for Poland

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Huddled masses of frightened Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion last night rode trains from Lviv in the country’s west to NATO ally Poland, with men under 60 allegedly prevented from leaving by officials and forced to say goodbye to their families.

Astonishing videos show a vast exodus at the city’s railway station as terrified civilians race to neighbouring countries to escape Vladimir Putin’s forces.

Witnesses at the station claimed that men aged 18-60 were blocked by state officials from getting on trains after Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky declared a general mobilisation and ordered men under pension aged to stay behind and fight the Russians. 

At least 150,000 people have escaped Ukrainians into neighbouring countries, the UN refugee agency said on Saturday. It is feared that 4million people could flee the war-torn country if the situation deteriorates further. 

One woman is believed to have been killed during a crush at the border with Poland as people queued for 25 hours, with temperatures plummeting below zero at night, to escape bombs in the besieged country.

A British man caught up in the chaos with his Ukrainian girlfriend called the scene ‘absolute pandemonium’, adding: ‘There was very little organisation and the closer you got to the front, the more people were pushing and shoving.

‘Every so often there would be these big surges and people would be screaming. There were lots of young children and it felt very dangerous. Terrifying. Fights broke out as people accused others of pushing in or of hurting them. People had blood running down their faces. We saw a couple of women fainting and being carried above the crowd.

‘And there was a strong rumour that someone had been crushed to death – the Polish border guards confirmed they had heard it was true. 

‘It was beyond unsafe. I have got bruises on me from all the pushing and I am just pleased that we finally managed to make it to Poland.’ 

Some Ukrainians have walked many miles through the night while others have fled by train, car or bus, forming lines miles long at border crossings. They were greeted by waiting relatives and friends or headed on their own to reception centres organised by neighbouring governments.

Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said: ‘The numbers and the situation is changing minute by minute.

‘At least 150,000 people have fled, they are refugees outside of Ukraine. At least 100,000 people – but probably a much larger number – have been displaced inside Ukraine.’

Zelensky on Sunday says his country is ready for peace talks with Russia but not in Belarus, which was a staging ground for Moscow’s invasion.

Speaking in a video message Sunday, the President named Warsaw, Bratislava, Istanbul, Budapest or Baku as alternative venues. He said other locations are also possible but made clear that Ukraine doesn’t accept Russia’s selection of Belarus.

The Kremlin said Sunday that a Russian delegation had arrived in the Belarusian city of Homel for talks with Ukrainian officials. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the delegation includes military officials and diplomats.

‘The Russian delegation is ready for talks, and we are now waiting for the Ukrainians,’ Peskov said.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday, with troops moving from Moscow’s ally Belarus in the north, and also from the east and south.

Street fighting broke out early Sunday in Kharkiv as Russian troops pushed into Ukraine’s second-largest city, according to a regional official, following a wave of attacks elsewhere targeting airfields and fuel facilities that appeared to mark a new phase of an invasion that has been slowed by fierce resistance.

The US and EU responded with weapons and ammunition for the outnumbered Ukrainians and powerful sanctions intended to further isolate Moscow.

Russian troops approached Kharkiv, about 12 miles south of the border with Russia, shortly after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine on Thursday. But until Sunday, they remained on the outskirts of the city of 1.4million without trying to enter while other forces rolled past, pressing their offensive deeper into Ukraine.

Early Sunday, Russian troops moved in and were engaged by Ukrainian forces, said Oleh Sinehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, who told civilians not to leave their homes. He gave no further details.

Videos posted on Ukrainian media and social networks showed Russian vehicles moving across Kharkiv and a light vehicle burning on the street.

Elsewhere, huge explosions lit up the sky early Sunday south of the capital, Kyiv, where people hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale assault by Russian forces.

Flames billowed into the sky before dawn from an oil depot near an air base in Vasylkiv, where there has been intense fighting, according to the town’s mayor. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said another explosion was at the civilian Zhuliany airport.

Zelensky’s office also said Russian forces blew up a gas pipeline in Kharkiv, prompting the government to warn people to protect themselves from the smoke by covering their windows with damp cloth or gauze.

‘We will fight for as long as needed to liberate our country,’ Zelensky vowed.

Terrified men, women and children sought safety inside and underground, and the government maintained a 39-hour curfew to keep people off the streets.

Putin hasn’t disclosed his ultimate plans, but Western officials believe he is determined to overthrow Ukraine’s government and replace it with a regime of his own, redrawing the map of Europe and reviving Moscow’s Cold War-era influence.

To aid Ukraine’s ability to hold out, the U.S. pledged an additional $350million in military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-tank weapons, body armour and small arms. Germany said it would send missiles and anti-tank weapons to the besieged country and that it would close its airspace to Russian planes.

The US, European Union and Britain agreed to block ‘selected’ Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial messaging system, which moves money around more than 11,000 banks and other financial institutions worldwide, part of a new round of sanctions aiming to impose a severe cost on Moscow for the invasion. They also agreed to impose ‘restrictive measures’ on Russia’s central bank.

Responding to a request from Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, tech billionaire Elon Musk said on Twitter his satellite-based internet system Starlink was now active in Ukraine and that there were ‘more terminals en route’.

It was unclear how much territory Russian forces had seized or to what extent their advance had been stalled. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said ‘the speed of the Russian advance has temporarily slowed likely as a result of acute logistical difficulties and strong Ukrainian resistance’.

A senior US defence official said more than half the Russian combat power that was massed along Ukraine’s borders had entered the country and Moscow has had to commit more fuel supply and other support units inside Ukraine than originally anticipated. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal US assessments.

The curfew forcing everyone in Kyiv inside was set to last through Monday morning. The relative quiet of the capital was sporadically broken by gunfire.

Fighting on the city’s outskirts suggested that small Russian units were trying to clear a path for the main forces. Small groups of Russian troops were reported inside Kyiv, but Britain and the US said the bulk of the forces were 19 miles from the city’s centre as of Saturday afternoon.

Russia claims its assault on Ukraine from the north, east and south is aimed only at military targets, but bridges, schools and residential neighbourhoods have been hit.

Ukraine’s health minister reported Saturday that 198 people, including three children, had been killed and more than 1,000 others wounded during Europe’s largest land war since the Second World War. It was unclear whether those figures included both military and civilian casualties.

A missile struck a high-rise apartment building in Kyiv’s southwestern outskirts near one of the city’s two passenger airports, leaving a jagged hole of ravaged apartments over several floors. A rescue worker said six civilians were injured.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, said troops in Kyiv were fighting Russian ‘sabotage groups’. Ukraine says some 200 Russian soldiers have been captured and thousands killed.

Markarova said Ukraine was gathering evidence of shelling of residential areas, kindergartens and hospitals to submit to The Hague as possible crimes against humanity.

Zelensky reiterated his openness to talks with Russia in a video message, saying he welcomed an offer from Turkey and Azerbaijan to organize diplomatic efforts, which so far have faltered.

The Kremlin confirmed a phone call between Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev but gave no hint of restarting talks. A day earlier, Zelenskyy offered to negotiate a key Russian demand: abandoning ambitions of joining NATO.

Putin sent troops into Ukraine after denying for weeks that he intended to do so, all the while building up a force of almost 200,000 troops along the countries’ borders. He claims the West has failed to take seriously Russia’s security concerns about NATO, the Western military alliance that Ukraine aspires to join. But he has also expressed scorn about Ukraine’s right to exist as an independent state.

In addition to Kyiv, the Russian assault appeared to focus on Ukraine’s economically vital coastal areas, from near the Black Sea port of Odesa in the west to beyond the Azov Sea port of Mariupol in the east.

Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol guarded bridges and blocked people from the shoreline amid concerns the Russian navy could launch an assault from the sea.

‘I don’t care anymore who wins and who doesn’t,’ said Ruzanna Zubenko, whose large family was forced from their home outside Mariupol after it was badly damaged by shelling. ‘The only important thing is for our children to be able to grow up smiling and not crying.’

Fighting also raged in two eastern territories controlled by pro-Russia separatists. Authorities in Donetsk said hot water supplies to the city of about 900,000 were suspended because of damage to the system by Ukrainian shelling.

The US and its allies have beefed up forces on NATO’s eastern flank but so far have ruled out deploying troops to fight Russia. Instead, the US, the European Union and other countries have slapped wide-ranging sanctions on Russia, freezing the assets of businesses and individuals including Putin and his foreign minister.