Putin, look what you did: a report from the Ukrainian side of our border – Diary N

Uzhhorod, Friday evening. A huge, several-kilometer column of cars has formed beyond our borders.

Two streams in the shape of the letter Y. A few hundred meters before the passage converges into one.

Women and children to Europe

The first car, the woman behind the wheel and the child. The second car, two women, probably a mother and a daughter. A third car, a woman and two children, one of them very small. Fourth, behind the wheel a girl, probably a student.

Where are the men?

I see the first men in a long line of pedestrians waiting to enter Slovakia from Uzhhorod. There are a few, ten at most. They usually say that they take their loved ones to safety “to Europe”. And they will return from the border back to Ukraine. Because they have to.

I have not seen anything like this during the exodus during the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan or Syria.

There is a general mobilization in Ukraine and men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not allowed to leave.