As war rages in Ukraine, more and more people are fleeing Putin’s troops. They fight for seats on the trains, stand in traffic for hours, and once they get a seat on the bus, it can happen that their father is sent back to the war just before the border. Traveling with the desperate.
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Florian Hassel and Cathrin Kahlweit, Kiev, Lemberg
Just a few days ago, Irina Prikhina would not have believed that she would have to run away from Vladimir Putin again. But one thing, she says, she understood when she first fled eight years ago. “When Vladimir Putin starts a war and grabs part of Ukraine, he won’t let go of him that easily. And you have to run away while you still can,” she says. She’s been on the road for a few days now, her escape began in Druzhkivka near the front in eastern Ukraine and took her across the country. First to Kiev, then to Lemberg, in the far west of Ukraine, and finally on to the border in the direction of Poland. From here we will continue to Finland.