Ukraine Crisis | 500,000+ refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia waged war

BEREGSURANY, Hungary (AP) — The mass exodus of refugees from Ukraine to the eastern edge of the European Union showed no signs of stopping Monday, with the United Nations estimating that more than 500,000 people have already escaped Russia's burgeoning war against Ukraine.

Long lines of cars and buses were backed up at checkpoints at the borders of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and non-EU member Moldova. Others crossed the borders on foot, dragging their possessions away from the war and into the security of the EU.

Several hundred refugees were gathered at a temporary reception centre in the Hungarian border village of Beregsurany awaiting transportation to transit hubs, where they could be taken further into Hungary and beyond.

Maria Pavlushko, 24, an information technology project manager from Zhytomyr, a city around 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, said she had been on a skiing holiday in the Carpathian mountains when she got word from home last week that Russia's invasion had begun.

“My granny called me saying there is war in the city,” she said.

Pavlushko plans to travel from Hungary to Poland, where her mother lives. But her grandmother is still at home in Zhytomyr, she said, and her father stayed behind to join the fight against the invading Russian forces sent in by Vladimir Putin.

“I am proud about him,” she said.

“A lot of my friends, a lot of young boys are going ... to kill (the Russian soldiers).”

Many of the refugees at the reception centre in Beregsurany, as in other border areas in Eastern Europe, are from India, Nigeria and other African countries, and were working or studying in Ukraine when the war broke out.

Masroor Ahmed, a 22-year-old Indian medical student studying in Ternopil in western Ukraine, came with 18 other Indian students to the Hungarian border. He said they hoped to reach the capital of Budapest, where India's government has organised an evacuation flight for its citizens.

While Ternopil has not yet experienced violence in the war, he said: “It might be that there is bombing next hour, next month or next year. We are not sure, that's why we left that city.”

Hungary, in a turnaround from its long-standing opposition to immigration and refusal to accept refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has opened its borders to all refugees fleeing Ukraine, including third-country nationals that can prove Ukrainian residency.

As part of an agreement with some foreign governments, Hungary has set up a “humanitarian corridor” to escort non-Ukrainian nationals from the border to airports in the city of Debrecen and the capital, Budapest.

Priscillia Vawa Zira, a Nigerian medical student in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, said she fled toward Hungary as the Russian military commenced an assault.

“The situation was very terrible. You had to run because of explosions here and there every minute, run to the bunker,” she said.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi tweeted on Monday that more than 500,000 refugees have now fled from Ukraine into neighbouring countries.

Shabia Mantoo, a UNHCR spokeswoman, said the latest count stood at roughly 281,000 in Poland, 84,500 in Hungary, 36,400 in Moldova, 32,500 in Romania and 30,000 in Slovakia.

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