Number of Ukrainians who fled more than a million • New explosions in Kyiv

She didn’t bring a suitcase, only a toiletry bag and her two cats. Olena (37) decided to leave Kyiv yesterday morning and arrived in Przemysl this evening, she told NOS editor Christiaan Paauwe in Poland:

“I was still up all night. My intuition told me to leave with my cats. A lot of people stayed, I don’t understand. Some have their sons or husbands in the army and want to stay with them, but it’s too dangerous. When I closed the door of my house, I realized that I might never come back.”

“I paid a crazy amount of money for a taxi to take me to the station. Normally I walk in a few minutes, but it was difficult with the two cats in their travel bag. At the station, no one knew not when a train would arrive. When one arrived on another platform, I ran towards it. A couple had to help me reach the cats in time.

“I was so relieved when it turned out that the train was going to Lviv. The carriages were full of women and children. There was no place to sit down. No one could go to the toilet, the children were crying and it took 12 hours to get to Lviv. The cats also hated being in a bag for so long. Then we had to take another train to Przemysl. Normally it takes a few hours, now we were in a full train for twelve hours. It was a hell of a lot, but it saved me. Friends from Krakow are picking me up now.”