On the Road With Ukraine’s Refugees: An Update

[0] Hey, it's Sabrina.

[1] This week, the Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and hearing what's happened in the time since they first ran.

[2] Today, we return to the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the long and harrowing journey that many Ukrainians found themselves on as they fled their homeland for safety.

[3] It's Monday, December 26th.

[4] We're leaving the hotel room.

[5] What time is it, Valerie?

[6] I think it's about 4 '10.

[7] It's 4 .10 p .m. on Tuesday, and we're leaving the hotel room in Kyiv, walking through a very dark hallway to an elevator that will bring us down to the car where we will drive south and west.

[8] Last Tuesday, the New York Times made the decision to pull a group of reporters out of Kiev and bring them to a city in western Ukraine that was safer called Leviv.

[9] I was one of those reporters, and so was my...

[10] colleague Valerie Hopkins.

[11] The drive was supposed to take seven hours.

[12] Instead, it took us two days and two nights.

[13] And just as we closed the trunk in the parking lot of the hotel, we heard this huge bang and then another.

[14] We just heard some artillery unclear if it's incoming or outgoing.

[15] We got into the car and drove out and some ambulances driving by.

[16] Later, we would discover that those two booms were Russian military trying to blow up the television tower in downtown Kiev.

[17] The traffic lights have stopped working.

[18] They're all just blinking.

[19] It's really, really sad.

[20] They're so empty.

[21] We're just driving through an intersection where there are some very serious -looking barricades.

[22] A bunch of sandbacks and probably a couple of dozen men in black uniforms walking across the street, holding rifles.

[23] After driving down those back roads out of Kiev, under that really dark, low sky, we stayed in the town of Biela at Sikvah, and we were woken up by another enormous boom.

[24] We kept driving that next day, and we thought we'd pretty easily be in Lviv by dinner time.

[25] But we just kept getting stuck.

[26] I mean, it was checkpoint after checkpoint.

[27] It's unbelievable crush of cars.

[28] It's 4 .50 p .m. on Wednesday.

[29] And we're in a line of cars as far as the eye can see on the highway going west toward the wolf from Vinica.

[30] Everybody has cars packed with kids, animals, suitcases.

[31] Woman holding a little boy just waved at me. Lots of cars with handmade signs in the window, taped to the windows, saying children, Diki, is just stretched on for miles and miles and miles.

[32] Just going slowly, maybe five kilometers an hour.

[33] And we're kind of neck and neck, so I'm going to stick my head out the window here and see if someone will talk to me. Do you speak English?

[34] Paruski?

[35] I'm from New York Times I'm from New York Times and my name is Sabrina You're from Krobynizki A's where you're going to from Krobynizki We've been driving for six hours now You've been driving for six hours now You're, how's called?

[36] Valeri, very pretty And do you, get it, right?

[37] Yeah, yeah.

[38] His name is Valerian and he has little kids in the back How do you see I'm really feeling now, Valeria.

[39] I'm really feeling quite down because my family is going out and I'm going to need to stay.

[40] What's what happened in your city when we went?

[41] I was in Odessa before, and Odessa is there already explosions starting in Odessa.

[42] What kind of in Odessa?

[43] What are you have in here in here?

[44] saying what are your feelings in your what are your feelings in your heart right now right now and they said very very heavy very pressed down and his wife is starting to cry thank you sovida I'm from New York Times my name is Sabrina you're from here today they're coming from Cheriniva his name is Dimitri his name is Dimitri Oh, they left in this traffic?

[45] We were really in the last year ago.

[46] Oh, they left the day before yesterday.

[47] Why then?

[48] Because we left sit in the basement in a coffin.

[49] We were really tired of sitting in the basement in a coffin.

[50] The planes were flying overhead.

[51] There, above my house was a war going full force.

[52] Children are crying.

[53] The old people are stuck in the houses.

[54] Their planes flying over.

[55] They can't get out.

[56] Just tell them to help.

[57] Tell them to stop this.

[58] Tell them to stop what's happening.

[59] If you can tell somebody, just communicate this, you have to stop this somehow.

[60] My friend remains there.

[61] We just left.

[62] They told us it was mine.

[63] Please, please tell them to stop it.

[64] There were lots of moms consoling children, sitting on their lap, sitting in the back, playing with toys.

[65] It's really heavy.

[66] It's really heavy.

[67] children in the bath.

[68] One little baby had a stuffed mobile, hung above her head, made of cloth mushrooms.

[69] I'm a reporter from the New York Times.

[70] Will you talk to me?

[71] Everybody talked about what it was that pushed them to actually go.

[72] There were so many explosions last night.

[73] The children were very afraid.

[74] And for the most part, it was explosions, bombs.

[75] So we're trying to get somewhere that is, Children feeling terrified having to go down into basements all the time, and parents just decided they'd had enough.

[76] Where are you coming from?

[77] From Kiev.

[78] I'm from Kiev.

[79] We are all from Kiev.

[80] Thank you too.

[81] You're welcome.

[82] Slavo Ukraine.

[83] Oh, my goodness.

[84] Whoa, we finally reached the checkpoint.

[85] Good day.

[86] By the end of the day on Wednesday, it became pretty clear that we were never going to make it to Leviv that night.

[87] It was already getting dark and we needed to stop for the night.

[88] And we were calling everywhere, any hotel, and everything was full.

[89] Nothing had rooms.

[90] And at some point, my colleague Valerie, reached someone in a town called Vietivzi, who said there was actually space at a kindergarten.

[91] in their town.

[92] And it didn't seem like a great option, but it was dark and it was snowing.

[93] And at that point, we didn't have a better idea.

[94] So we drove to the town.

[95] And we got out and a man greeted us and introduced himself as the mayor of the town.

[96] And he said we just needed to bring our passports up to the second floor register.

[97] And then we could have the room in the kindergarten.

[98] Hi.

[99] I'm Sabrina.

[100] Hi.

[101] Nice to meet you, too.

[102] Thank you for being.

[103] They took us into the kindergarten, and it was this...

[104] Oh, we're in a kindergarten.

[105] There's a little...

[106] Oh, there's little cubbies.

[107] Really brightly painted series of rooms.

[108] Little cubbies, little child -sized seats.

[109] There's painting of a giraffe and a palm tree on the wall.

[110] And a lot of spider plants.

[111] Little silk flowers.

[112] And lots of little child -sized mattresses.

[113] Uh -huh, come here, come here.

[114] Aksana's showing us the kitchen.

[115] Oh, wow.

[116] Oh, tea, uh -huh.

[117] The tea, the teapot?

[118] Instant coffee.

[119] And then there's tea bags.

[120] So we started to settle in for the night, and a very kind woman who ran the kindergarten made food for us.

[121] She made us tea.

[122] She met us spicy rice with chicken.

[123] And she had a huge jar of pickles that she had made herself, that she brought out, and we each took a pickle.

[124] We had dinner at a tiny little child -sized table sitting on tiny little child -sized chairs.

[125] Asking if this is the other family, can I have to say hello?

[126] And pretty soon another family showed up.

[127] Okay, so Luda, Anna, Ina, Ira.

[128] Ira.

[129] Max.

[130] Okay.

[131] So Luda is grandmother and then three grandchildren.

[132] Yes.

[133] Yeah, nice.

[134] How old?

[135] 12.

[136] You're 12.

[137] How old are you?

[138] Doesn't she look so much over?

[139] Oh.

[140] How old are you, Max?

[141] Fifteen.

[142] You're 15.

[143] How's how much of we were driving for 12 hours?

[144] Yeah.

[145] Did you come from Kiev?

[146] Is Kyiv?

[147] No, no. Cherkasa.

[148] Oh, Cherkassi.

[149] They came from Cherkassi.

[150] A little bit below.

[151] What was what happened in Cherkassi?

[152] Was there?

[153] I'm saying, what happened in Cherkassia.

[154] and they're saying explosions like a tollchok to go out, how you have you decided to go ahead?

[155] My family that's living in Poland and my mom just every day, she's really worried she's crying I, I'd really want to stay.

[156] The truth is I would actually like to stay I would think I would I think I would be helpful in some way.

[157] But my mom, I want to be with her, really, I want to be with her.

[158] Aira, how, what are you feeling right now in your heart?

[159] I went to my machine, I almost didn't want to play, because I'm going to the car and I was feeling like I was going to cry because I felt like I was leaving my country and it was actually war.

[160] and I was leaving my country.

[161] It's a really horrible feeling, actually.

[162] You hear this every day, but it's horrible.

[163] You hear this every day, it's horrible.

[164] It's very bad.

[165] Papa, a man, here, is there to terror baron, to protect the city, on these blockposts to stay.

[166] It's also a problem.

[167] My dad is still in the town, and so is my boyfriend, and they're doing, My boyfriend actually went to do the, man the checkpoints, and that can be a dangerous thing in town to man the checkpoints.

[168] So he stayed there, and he won't leave.

[169] And one hand, I'm really proud.

[170] And the other side, I'm in other side, I'm sorry.

[171] On the other hand, I was trying to convince him not to do it, but then I thought, no, okay, go.

[172] So Luda is offering us little pancakes with meat, and they're so good.

[173] While we were there standing in the kindergarten talking, a woman walked in.

[174] Her name was Larissa.

[175] She owned a hotel right down the street, and she told us it was overflowing.

[176] So we're going upstairs.

[177] People are, lots of people are sleeping, so we're going to try to not make a lot of sound.

[178] She took us to her hotel, and when we went inside, we saw people lying everywhere.

[179] There's a man who's sleeping in the corridor.

[180] In the hallways, under tables.

[181] This is another little place for sleeping underneath a piano.

[182] Next to a piano.

[183] So Aramon is showing me where they're going to be sleeping.

[184] He's carrying a little child.

[185] In a back room that was very small.

[186] Sometimes it feels like it just is an old movie that you're watching in front of your eyes.

[187] something from, something from Zara's time.

[188] That is the thing, come in, come in, welcome, where you're going to sleep under the table.

[189] There's two women and a young child who just came through the door.

[190] And suddenly we heard these air raid sirens.

[191] And everyone in the hotel moved toward a trap door in the floor and climbed down to the basement.

[192] Oh, it's scary, the little girl says.

[193] They've suffered such days, my children.

[194] We heard huge blasts.

[195] We heard huge blasts.

[196] They were shooting.

[197] We saw how people are suffering.

[198] We hear how people are suffering.

[199] When we left, I was trying not to cry in Kiev, but when we left, I was trying not to cry in Kiev, but when we left Kiev, I started just crying, and I, the tears couldn't, wouldn't stop.

[200] We really want the Ukrainian army to win to succeed.

[201] We see how it's so unjust, what's happening, so unjust.

[202] We want the Ukrainian army to win.

[203] So we're going back out of the shelter now, back out of the basement.

[204] I guess the danger is over.

[205] What time is it, you guys?

[206] It's 1026.

[207] When we got the all -clear after about half an hour, the families climbed back up the stairs into their hallways and back rooms and next to the piano.

[208] And we went back to the kindergarten for the night.

[209] Spakuen nochi.

[210] Bye.

[211] Good night.

[212] We'll be right back.

[213] In the morning, we all got up together.

[214] There was just one bathroom, and at that point, probably 50 people in the kindergarten.

[215] So we all took turns.

[216] My name is Caroline.

[217] You're going to Poland.

[218] So I'm...

[219] We have hamster.

[220] Hamster?

[221] It's in the village with a grandma.

[222] With a grandma.

[223] What's the hamster's name?

[224] Bousam.

[225] Bousia.

[226] What does Bousia mean in Russian?

[227] Boussia...

[228] Oh, it's a...

[229] like a pearl?

[230] Wow, little pearl.

[231] Pearl.

[232] He's white.

[233] He's white.

[234] Oh, good name.

[235] Good name.

[236] There's a...

[237] There's a little girl trying to get into the bathroom.

[238] There's a little girl trying to get into the bathroom.

[239] I don't know.

[240] What's her name?

[241] I don't know.

[242] I don't ask her.

[243] Okay.

[244] I'm asking Carolina all the children's names, but she doesn't know them.

[245] Bye, Ira.

[246] Bye.

[247] We're leaving the school now.

[248] It's a very snowy road.

[249] It's 1230 on Thursday, and we're in a checkpoint line in Western Ukraine that's that's stretched at least two hours, if not more.

[250] We've seen mothers taking little kids to off onto the field on the right side of the road here to pee and go to the bathroom.

[251] One woman was pulling up her little boys' green underpants just a bit ago.

[252] And we saw a woman helping an elderly woman, Babushka, down the kind of down the, this sort of grassy area to get to the bottom so she could go to the bathroom and she fell.

[253] And then she tried to help her when she was helping her up.

[254] Just an incredibly long line that's all of these people from all of these parts of Ukraine from all over are waiting in to get out.

[255] This is what happens when an entire country tries to evacuate in a week.

[256] We're at the very beginning of the checkpoint line.

[257] that we've been in for two hours and we're just pulling up 1237.

[258] Hello.

[259] What are you?

[260] Passports.

[261] It looks like a territorial defense guy checking our passports.

[262] He says, okay, go, go, drive.

[263] We finally got to Levyveev in the afternoon on Thursday.

[264] The city was packed and overflowing.

[265] The train station was swarming with people.

[266] Lviv is a place where people say goodbye.

[267] Men go back to their towns because the men couldn't leave Ukraine.

[268] Women and children go on to Poland.

[269] We're driving up to the train station, and it is quite crowded streets.

[270] The sidewalks on either side of the street are just packed.

[271] Lots of children.

[272] And now we're going to get out and go with Alina, the volunteer, who's going to take us to the train station.

[273] When I got to Lviv, I went to the train station with a volunteer named Alina Afremenka.

[274] She's working to help refugee women and children.

[275] and she works with them mostly in the train station.

[276] This is a packed sidewalk.

[277] People are leaving the train station, flood, just a river of people leaving the train station.

[278] Oh my God, this is an unbelievably packed train station.

[279] You can't move.

[280] It's like a concert.

[281] It's a cue for Poland.

[282] Oh, my God.

[283] This is a cue for Poland.

[284] Now we are going for the waiting home.

[285] for mothers and their children when our volunteers is situated and from where we are coordinated great I'm trying to get through and we can't get through very huge bags right at my knees oh a backpack in my face okay Oh, my God.

[286] Oh, there's a little boy holding a parakeet, a green parakeet, in a clear plastic container that looks like it used to have cherry tomatoes in it.

[287] It's a little parakeet.

[288] Oh, my goodness.

[289] People are grabbing their bags, moving really suddenly and kind of with some urgency and desperation.

[290] And while we were walking through the main terminal, now talking to the crowd.

[291] There was this surge forward in the crowd.

[292] Everyone was moving toward this tunnel, a kind of underground passage that was packed so tightly, this long line of people trying to get on the train to Poland.

[293] Alina is trying to explain.

[294] I'm speaking.

[295] Be quiet.

[296] These are volunteers here.

[297] They're not many of us.

[298] We need order here.

[299] No panic.

[300] Don't break the rules.

[301] Don't let things get at the hand.

[302] Stop it.

[303] Be quiet.

[304] We've been standing since 11 .30.

[305] I need to say, stop.

[306] I mean, I'm saying three lines, three lines.

[307] Give it.

[308] Make the way for us.

[309] Make way for us.

[310] Make way for us.

[311] Make way for us.

[312] Oh my God.

[313] Oh, my God.

[314] Let us through.

[315] Please let us through.

[316] Oh, shit.

[317] Yeah.

[318] Yeah, it's...

[319] Oh, my God.

[320] And it's enough.

[321] Even less than it would be.

[322] It was.

[323] Now we've gotten up to the platform.

[324] We're going up to the women's in children's room.

[325] Yeah.

[326] And our medicine room and our...

[327] Our headquarters.

[328] Yeah.

[329] Headquarters.

[330] So we're going up a stairway.

[331] And we're going up to the head.

[332] quarters of the volunteers.

[333] It's also the place where the women and children can rest.

[334] A lot of women.

[335] People sitting on pieces of cardboard.

[336] Oh, rugs.

[337] Oh, wow.

[338] This is a hall of, I would say, probably 400, 500 people in it.

[339] Lots of little babies.

[340] It's a woman in a black puffer jacket.

[341] It's just changing her son's underwear.

[342] A little boy in a blue jacket crying.

[343] Just sobbing on a chair.

[344] The little boy is really sad.

[345] Do you speak English?

[346] Oh, excellent.

[347] My name is Sabrina.

[348] I'm a reporter for the New York Times.

[349] Can I talk to you a little bit?

[350] Yes.

[351] Tell me your name.

[352] I speak English so, so.

[353] It sounds very good.

[354] It sounds very good.

[355] So what is your name?

[356] My name is Alona.

[357] Elona, nice to meet you.

[358] It's nice to meet you, too.

[359] Ilona, where did you come from?

[360] I'm from Zaporizia.

[361] Zaparizia.

[362] A lot of people from the train station today from Zaporizia.

[363] Yes, yes.

[364] There are a lot of us.

[365] Ilona, what, how are you feeling right now?

[366] It is very, we are scared.

[367] We are scared and we don't know where we, come, what will be in our future, we don't know.

[368] But we all, everything will better.

[369] We're thinking, we're, we're not doing for the best.

[370] We're really hoping.

[371] We're hoping for the best.

[372] Yes.

[373] I'm in Zaporosia, my family.

[374] My husband, my relatives.

[375] I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I just, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was just, I was leaving yesterday with my daughter and I just was sobbing in the train.

[376] I left my whole family there, my husband, everybody, everybody's still there.

[377] I didn't take anything with me, just my daughter.

[378] We were with her, we said to her, that all right.

[379] And today's the morning, she said a question, as a young girl, she said, it's a right decision.

[380] I'm going to, I don't know.

[381] I don't know.

[382] We both pride yesterday on the train, and this morning, she asked, me the question, as if she was a grown -up girl, she said, was it the right decision to leave?

[383] And I said, I don't know.

[384] A, you know, you feel, you know, maybe that's a strange, an unlawful question, you know, you feel, you yourself a refugee?

[385] It's a bad question.

[386] Well, yeah, I'm still, I'm saving my daughter.

[387] I'm not saying my mother.

[388] And I, I don't know my husband.

[389] I didn't want to leave my husband.

[390] I'm not leaving the country.

[391] I'm only going to Western Ukraine.

[392] I'm not leaving the country.

[393] And I know I'm going to be returning.

[394] I don't want that status.

[395] I don't want that status.

[396] No, I love my homeland.

[397] Yes, yes.

[398] We're in answer for her life, so I'm trying to make the right decision, but I don't know, am I making the right decision?

[399] My husband tells me, I need to take her, we're responsible for her life.

[400] I don't know, it's right, it's not right, I don't know if it's right, not right.

[401] I just had my family gathered all of our stuff and said, go, you must go.

[402] I'm just sending thoughts out to the cosmos that it's going to be okay.

[403] It's going to be okay.

[404] How's called you?

[405] The name for Englishman, it will be Tim.

[406] Tim.

[407] Your name is Tim.

[408] I met in the station was a little boy named Tim.

[409] He was waiting by himself on a pile of suitcases.

[410] Tim, how old are you?

[411] How old are you?

[412] Seven.

[413] Seven.

[414] Seven.

[415] Cool.

[416] Oh, I'm going to go.

[417] She's upstairs.

[418] She went to get us to.

[419] Upstead, I know.

[420] And downstairs.

[421] Downstairs, exactly.

[422] Good, Tim.

[423] You know, upstairs and downstairs.

[424] What else do you know in English, Tim?

[425] On Ukrainian.

[426] I speak Russian.

[427] I speak Ukrainian and I speak English.

[428] I speak Ukrainian and I speak English.

[429] Right, Tim, where, where we're now?

[430] Right now, I don't know where I am.

[431] I know, from Slovinsk.

[432] I came from Slavinsk.

[433] I came from.

[434] My babusky, there's such a teplocustka my.

[435] That's not ever been.

[436] My coat that my grandmother gave me for the journey, it's like my grandmother is very warm.

[437] I want to tell you what?

[438] Let me tell you a secret.

[439] I'm, I'm, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I pulled out of my teeth, you know, like?

[440] Weirval zub?

[441] Yeah, perchatk.

[442] This, or this?

[443] I want to tell you a secret that in the car, when I was in the car, I pulled out one of my teeth, actually two, this one and this one, with my glove.

[444] Tim was curious about my English, and he said, How do you translate Kiev?

[445] I asked him what he meant.

[446] He said, I mean the city, Kyiv.

[447] Goard?

[448] Yeah, my father was in Kyiv, when there was when there was still no war.

[449] That's where my dad was when there was still no war.

[450] So Tim has this excellent Lego thing.

[451] It looks like kind of like a big robot.

[452] Tim, you're taking this apart, this thing.

[453] I'm doing it.

[454] Yeah, I'm redoing it.

[455] After the break, an update on the current status of Ukrainian refugees.

[456] We'll be right back.

[457] In the 10 months since the war began, nearly 8 million Ukrainians have fled the country.

[458] The vast majority have been children and women under 40.

[459] The exodus that started in the first weeks of the war was the fastest displacement of people since World War II.

[460] But by summer, as the Russian campaign stalled, Ukrainians began to reverse course, returning home to cities and towns where life had resumed.

[461] That changed again in the fall, when Russia began a series of relentless attacks on Ukraine's power infrastructure, leaving broad swaths of the country without electricity, heat, or even water.

[462] Now, once again, more Ukrainians are leaving the country than coming into it.

[463] The overwhelming majority of Ukrainians have gone to the European Union.

[464] Poland has taken in the highest number at 1 .5 million.

[465] Germany came in second taking 1 million.

[466] But as this hosting approaches the year mark, the strains of supporting such large numbers of people have begun to show.

[467] In Germany in recent months, three quarters of states have reported that they've reached their limit with housing and education.

[468] Austria has started to restrict free train travel it was originally providing to all Ukrainians.

[469] And Poland has begun requiring that any Ukrainians staying in the country for more than four months has to pay part of their housing.

[470] The International Monetary Fund estimates that the cost to the European Union of supporting Ukrainian refugees could reach $39 billion in the first year of the war.

[471] Today's episode was produced by Lindsay Garrison, Sydney Harper, and Caitlin Roberts, with help from my first year.

[472] Muzzi.

[473] It was edited by Michael Benoit with help from Anita Badajo.

[474] Contains original music by Marion Lazzano and was engineered by Chris Wood and Dan Farrell.

[475] Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsberg of Wonderly.

[476] That's it for the Daily.

[477] I'm Sabrina Tavernisi.

[478] See you tomorrow.