It’s been a little more than two weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine and, already, two million refugees have fled the country. The invasion, which began on February 24, has ensnared the nation of forty-four million in a war with one of the largest and most sophisticated armies in the world. Though Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military initially focused on shelling military sites, it is now evident that he intends to break the civilian population by bombarding populous cities and towns.
This, in turn, has created the largest global refugee crisis since the beginning of the Syrian civil war more than a decade ago. Many of the refugees now find themselves without a place to go after fleeing Ukraine. Some Ukrainian women have left their husbands, sons, brothers, and fathers behind, as men between the ages of eighteen and sixty have been banned from leaving the country in order to fill the ranks of the national military; others have voluntarily stayed behind to join the frontlines in cities across the country.
As the United States and the European Union impose stiff sanctions on Russia, Ukrainians continue to inspire the world with their show of patriotism, compassion, and battlefield successes. In the southern area of Odessa, citizens are filling sandbags and fortifying streets as they prepare for Russian advances. In the western city of Lviv, an outpost known as the cradle of Ukrainian nationalism, volunteers spend hours making camouflage nets, anti-tank steel barricades, and Molotov cocktails for the army.
With much unknown at the moment, the Ukrainian people during these days will be remembered as valiant. Not because they knew how to fight, but because they showed the world that their unity, compassion, and humanity toward each other is all that there really is to fight for in the end.
At the train station in Lviv, Ukraine, the atmosphere reflected the gray skies. Throughout the afternoon, crowds swelled with people arriving to the city from areas of the country that saw heavy bombing and fighting. March 2022.
A Vietnamese-Ukrainian refugee has a seizure after suffering a panic attack in Lviv while waiting in a crowded line to board a train out of Ukraine to Poland. March 2022.
A Ukrainian soldier helps guide a fleeing family to a train in Lviv headed to Poland. March 2022.
The remnants of an apartment building in Kyiv after being hit by an airstrike. February 2022.
Refugees flee Irpin, Ukraine following intense fighting in the suburban area outside of Kyiv. March 2022.
Taras Maselk, the public relations director of Pravda Brewery in Lviv, a Ukrainian brewery whose name translates to “truth,” holds one of its molotov cocktails bearing a graphic image of Russian President Vladimir Putin. March 2022.
A Ukrainian family walks into Poland from the Polish-Ukrainian border after being processed at the passport control center in Medyka, Poland. February 2022.
Families waited at the Lviv train station in tunnels underneath the platforms for what seemed like hours. But even once they were safely boarded, the faces of the children and their parents showed no signs of relief. March 2022.
African international students fleeing Ukraine arrive at the train station in the Polish city of Przemysl. February 2022.
A Ukrainian refugee arrives at the train station in the Polish city of Przemysl. February 2022.