Newshub Europe correspondent Lisette Reymer has been reporting from Poland and the Ukraine. Photo / Daniel Pannett
Newshub Europe correspondent Lisette Reymer has been reporting from Poland and the Ukraine. Photo / Daniel Pannett
Newshub's Europe correspondent says they're witnessing desperate scenes as refugees flood through Poland's Ukraine border.
Lisette Reymer is in Poland and told the Herald's In the Loop podcast that they're seeing mothers with children who have walked 100km in freezing temperatures to get out of the country.
"They're not being picky, they're not being choosy, they just want to get to safety. At the moment Ukraine is a war zone, so they're just not safe there."
Reymer said part of what made it so difficult was that most Ukranian men were unable to join their families across the border.
"Anyone [male] aged between 18 and 60 has to enlist and join the army, so mothers and children are leaving without their husbands, without their dads. And that is making for some heart-wrenching family separations because they don't know if they'll ever see their husband again or see their dad again."
At the border, she said there was so much uncertainty and stress among those arriving from Ukraine.
"Not only because their partner or their dad that has to stay back, but because of their futures, they don't know if they can ever go home again."
Some, she told the podcast, didn't know whether they would have to start "completely new lives" in new countries.
"I spoke to one woman in a train station today and she hadn't heard from her parents in two hours and she was just really, really distressed because things are so so dangerous in Ukraine."
While some arriving at the border had families to stay with, Reymer said they were seeing an outpouring of love and generosity from others in Europe.
She described how thousands of people from all over the continent were showing up at the camps where the refugees are staying, offering a ride and a place to stay in their home country.
"One man had driven overnight from Germany to be here today, to drop off some supplies, some nappies, some clothes but also take a whole carload of people back to Germany with him and [to] just look after them for as long as they needed."
Reymer said people were coming from "horror movie-level" situations in Ukraine and, in the space of 24 hours, being wrapped in support.
In the Loop is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes come out every Friday morning.
