‘I’ll be back to help’: women return home to help the war effort –

People wait in line to board the train to Lviv at Ukraine Railway Station in Pzemysl, Poland on Monday, March 14, 2022. Although tens of thousands of people leave Ukraine every day after the Russian invasion, a small number but growing. In the other direction. Before, they were foreign volunteers, Ukrainian immigrants who went to war and people who helped. But more and more women are returning. (Photo AP / Daniel Cole)

PRZEMYSL, Poland – Despite more than 3 million people having left Ukraine since the Russian invasion, a small but growing number of people are moving in other directions. Before, they were foreign volunteers, Ukrainian immigrants who went to war and people who helped. Now, more and more, women are also returning.

These women, who want to help their relatives in need and contribute more or less to the protection and survival of their country and their citizens, are fighting even more courageously with the bombs that hit Ukraine after the invasion of Russian forces. February 24.

Many are not refugees, but women who have lived and worked abroad. Others had already chosen to stay in their home country, but had to cross the border to purchase the goods they needed, as supplies were scattered due to an attack on a home.

“I’ll come back and help. “I’m a healthcare worker, so hospitals need help,” said Irina Aurel, 50, who was carrying her luggage when she boarded a train from Przemysl to Lvov, Poland, Ukraine. western. “And I’ll stay until the end.”

The Ukrainian government ordered men to stay and fight, the vast majority of people fleeing Ukraine were women, children and the elderly. For those who are unable or unwilling to leave, the danger of staying is great, and the danger is highlighted by images such as a mortally wounded pregnant woman on a stretcher at Mariupol maternity hospital.

However, some women have chosen to reciprocate and shed blood to contribute as much as possible.

After arriving in the port city of Odessa, which until then had remained under the control of the Ukrainian government, Oreli said he was initially frightened by the sound of air raid sirens and explosives, but “to sit with fear and explosives. chills doesn’t help. ” “

She said she envisions her role as a health worker, but that other women may choose to help protect the nation’s military.

“Women can fight,” she said. “Many women are patriotic to defend Ukraine, why not?”

It is not new for women to flock to war zones or participate in war initiatives. Female soldiers were an important part of the Ukrainian army before the war, including in combat roles. Like many men, some women take up arms for the first time. Furthermore, gender equality in the workplace and in the military has traditionally been more prevalent in post-Soviet countries such as Ukraine than in many other countries around the world.

Spokeswoman Anna Mikhalska said Tuesday that following the invasion, Polish border guards recorded that more than four of them had crossed Poland to Ukraine. This includes those who come and go or take relatives away to purchase and return necessary food and supplies to Poland. So some people count multiple times.

According to UN agencies, Poland has welcomed over 1.8 million refugees after occupying over 60% of the total migration of 3 million. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) initially predicted that around 4 million refugees would flee, a number that may soon decline.

“What should actually be said? Three million refugees in just two weeks. “This is terrible and it does not end,” said United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in an interview with the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, where he visited Afghans to persuade Afghans despite the horrors of war. in Ukraine. I haven’t forgotten.

“Everyone is wondering how many refugees will leave Ukraine,” he said. “The answer is very simple: I just don’t know.”

The delivery of aid goes to Ukraine, along with known flows of weapons and fighters ready to use them. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it received 200 tons of medical and relief supplies, including water, mattresses, blankets, food, first aid kits, plastic towels and over 5,000 body bags.

Less noteworthy is that women entered or moved abroad to keep themselves alive as much as possible, either by trying to bring help from abroad or by staying in the dormitory.

“I am returning to Ukraine to help evacuate people,” said Maria Khalica, who lives in Italy and traveled to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. “I am now in a more stable situation than my friends under missile attack and bombing.

“I know that Kiev is also occupied and we are using the latter possibility to help other people,” he said, adding that he believes Russian forces will eventually occupy the capital.

Some women return to join their families, while others return as health workers or in the military to help in any way they can.

“We are planning to return to the family and we will decide together with the family what to do next,” said Olga Simanova, 56, who left Germany to return to her family’s hometown Vinnytsia.

Meanwhile, the number of fugitives continues to increase.

UNICEF spokesman James Elder said around 1.4 million children were fleeing the occupation of Ukraine, an average of around 73,000 per day.

According to him, «in 55 minutes. So almost – since the war began on February 24 – there is (currently) one child refugee every second from Ukraine.

They fled to Eastern European countries: Romania received more than 450,000, Moldova more than 337,000, Hungary more than 263,000 and Slovakia about 213,000, according to the latest UNHCR data on Tuesday. Warsaw, the capital of Poland alone, has welcomed around 300,000 refugees, a 15% increase over its population of over 1.7 million.

“These are huge numbers,” said Moldovan Foreign Minister Niko Popescu, asking for financial aid from Italy. “The number of refugees is 4 percent of the total population of Moldova.

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Kiten reported from Geneva. Monica ის islowska, Warsaw, Poland; Vira Loi in Przemysch, Poland; Helena Alves in Chisinau, Moldova; Katie Gannon of Kabul, Afghanistan, also contributed to this report.

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Source: Washington Post

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