ReportWarsaw has announced that it has allowed 115,000 people to pass through all the border points since the start of the conflict on Thursday 24 February. They would be tens of thousands waiting for hours on the Ukrainian side.
We could rename this place in the far east of Poland “Parking Europa”. In Medyka, a border town with Ukraine, hundreds of cars wait, Saturday, February 26, bumper against bumper, in this gray and ugly landscape typical of border no man’s land. German, Estonian, Danish, Czech, Norwegian and, of course, Polish license plates: Ukrainians in the diaspora flock from all over Europe to wait for a friend, a lover or even children fleeing the war.
“I’ve been waiting for my sister since 10 p.m. last night”says Alexander, 29, from the back seat of his vehicle where he spent the night, after having traveled all the way from Denmark, where this Ukrainian works in agriculture, like the hundreds of thousands of his citizens who have left to seek a better future in the European Union (EU) in recent years. “We also slept here”abounds with its galley and parking neighbors, who have come from Germany and the Netherlands. “My wife was visiting her family in Ukraine, she was surprised by the war”, explains Ardi. All of a sudden, here is who arrives in a 4 x 4. Ardi can finally kiss him, before taking him to leave immediately for the Netherlands.
Located on the road to Lviv, a large city in western Ukraine, Medyka is in fact the most accessible crossing point for all refugees coming from Kiev by road, train or even on foot and who want to flee to Western Europe. At all the border points, the Polish authorities have announced that they have already allowed 115,000 people to pass since the start of the conflict on Thursday 24 February. But they would still be tens of thousands waiting for hours on the Ukrainian side. In front of the Polish gatehouses of Medyka, the flow of women and children is thus continuous, but not yet massive. On the other side of the border, Ukrainian customs officers always carefully prevent men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the territory.
Anguish and long wait
Which generates huge queues and sometimes a lot of frustration. “I came with a friend to pick up his Ukrainian wife. She wants to come with her 18-year-old son, who is sick, but no one knows if they will let her pass., explains Helge Luwig, an economist from Bavaria, who is desperately watching the border post. With their converted vehicle in which they spend the night, the two friends had already tried to wait for her at another border post, but she and her son were forced to get off their bus, says Helge, before deciding to stop waiting for tonight.
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