MEDYKA, Poland — Yulia Bondarieva spent 10 days in a basement as Russian planes flew over and bombs were falling on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Having reached safety in Poland, Bondarieva’s only wish now is for her twin sister in the besieged city of Mariupol to get out, too.
“They have been in the basement since Feb. 24, they have not been out at all,” Bondarieva said. “They are running out of food and water.”
Bondarieva, 24, managed to speak to her sister on the phone recently. The fear of what will happen to her in the encircled and bombed-out city that is going through some of the worst fighting in the war has been overwhelming.
“She does not know how to leave the city,” Bondarieva said after arriving in the Polish border town of Medyka.
Before the war, Mariupol had a population of about 430,000, and about a quarter got out shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Leaving the besieged city later became nearly impossible. Tens of thousands escaped over the past week by way of a humanitarian corridor, including 3,000 on Monday, but other attempts have been thwarted by the fighting. The Mariupol City Council has asserted that several thousand residents were taken into Russia against their will.
Bondarieva said her sister told her of “Russian soldiers walking around the city” in Mariupol, and people not being allowed out.
In a sign of the dangers for civilians trying to flee, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday that Russian shelling along a humanitarian corridor had wounded four children who were among those being evacuated. He said the shelling took place in the Zaporizhzhia region, the initial destination of those fleeing Mariupol.
The United Nations says nearly 3.5 million people have left Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion, the largest exodus of refugees in Europe since World War II.
Valentina Ketchena arrived by train at Przemsyl on Monday. She never thought that at the age of 70 she would be forced to leave her home in Kriviy Rig, and see the town in southern Ukraine almost deserted as people flee the Russian invasion for safety.
Kriviy Rig is now “half-empty,” said Ketchena. She will stay now with friends in Poland, hoping to return home soon. “It (is a) very difficult time for everyone.”
