Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian civilians have been forced to flee their country after their homes were destroyed. Other civilians, whose homes have not been touched, flee in escape from the fear of being killed or injured from explosions of Russian military attacks on towns.
Several organizations, such as the Red Cross are preparing to provide humanitarian assistance to the refugees. World Health Organization’s, WHO, regional director for Europe, Dr. Hans Kluge, informed a virtual news conference that “76 tons of health supplies have been sent to Ukraine, including five tons to Kyiv.” This was done in efforts to provide medical supplies to save lives for a safe humanitarian corridor through international collaboration.
Ukrainians are fleeing to Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland and half of the 1.7 million refugees fleeing Ukraine are children, said Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF. In only 11 days since the war began, 1.7 million people fleeing Ukraine has been the largest and fastest dislocation in Europe “for decades,” United Nations, UN, stated. Of the 1.7 million Ukrainian civilians, mostly women and children have “crossed the border into central Europe” because men have stayed in Ukraine to fight.
Having the largest Ukrainian community in central Europe, Poland, has more than one million Ukrainian refugees. At the Siret border crossing with Ukraine, in Romania, volunteers are welcoming Ukrainian mothers by carrying their backpacks or holding their children as they are leaving the border crossing to relieve some of the weight of walking and carrying their things in the cold. The Czech Republic has “donated $62.8” million dollars in aid for Ukraine, which is the largest amount of money ever collected towards humanitarian aid in the country.
To evacuate civilians that are fleeing from Ukraine into Russian territory, Moscow will open humanitarian corridors daily. However, Kyiv insists that there shouldn’t be any evacuation routes that are leading into Russia from Ukraine. Despite whether Ukraine agrees or disagrees with Russia providing daily humanitarian corridors that will be open every day from ten in the morning. Humanitarian corridors are temporary demilitarized zones that are intended to allow for the safe stay or passage for refugees that are fleeing a country in a crisis.
Written by Margaret Georgiev of Walter Johnson High School
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