Thousands of people are fleeing the fighting in Ukraine. Here's who is trying to get in.
MEDYKA BORDER CROSSING, Poland – Hundreds of thousands of people have been fleeing Ukraine. But some are actually trying to get in.
Interviews at this Ukrainian-Polish border crossing show why.
Dovlet Ylyasov, 38, of Turkmenistan says he is going to fight the Russians. He’s worried that his country, also a former Soviet republic, will be next to be invaded.
Valeriia Nahornova, an accountant from Ukraine, wants to bring her grandmother out.
Luc, a German who drove here from Berlin and would not give his surname, is dropping off a car just over the border filled with food and other supplies for Ukrainian fighters.
The surge of people trying to get out of Ukraine – and those trying to get in – has drastically increased over the past few days and is poised to grow even more as the war intensifies.
An estimated 500,000 people poured into Poland from Ukraine last week, among the more than 1 million who have fled the country overall. But as the war escalates, more are returning, especially to fight. A line of 100 vehicles stretched a half mile at this border crossing in eastern Poland on Friday to get into Ukraine.
More: More than 1.3 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded. Here is where they're going.
More than 60,000 Ukrainian men have returned from abroad to fight Russia, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a tweet Saturday. He added that the returned troops would create 12 additional “combat and motivated” brigades.
Viktor, a 34-year-old truck driver, and Vladyslaw are two such Ukrainians. Smoking a cigarette out his car window, a teal Astra, Viktor declined to give their surnames out of concerns for their security. But they said they were going to Ukraine because more fighters were needed.
“If many boys and men come back, we will have a victory,” he said. “The Ukrainian Army is strong and has much motivation.”
Hundreds of others are coming from 22 countries around the world, according to the Ukrainian army, including 200 from Belarus, 400 from Sweden and 200 from Croatia. Hundreds of Americans also have volunteered to fight.
Ylyasov, the man from Turkmenistan, had been in Ukraine studying before the war. He briefly left to go to Poland to collect a donated car to drive back to Ukraine, where friends will outfit him and help him join the army.
He said that if Russia wins the war, other countries in the region will be forced to fight for their freedom.
“Whoever we are, this is our common misfortune,” he said. “It’s not someone else's. Whoever you are – Turk, German, Kazakh, Uzbek, Ukrainian – this trouble, this war, is for all of us now. Here we can show our solidarity.”
Also on the Polish side of the border crossing Friday were four American men, milling about a refugee camp. They were dressed in fatigues and standing near their large duffel bags.
They declined to give their names or say why they were there.
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Luc, the German, was waiting in a long line of vehicles in an old SUV stuffed with clothes, food and military supplies. He said he plans to drop the SUV off just over the border for a friend’s family and then return to Germany.
One Ukrainian man, a taxi driver who has been living in Poland the past seven years, waited in line in a maroon car he bought last week in Germany. He declined to give his name, saying he feared retribution from the Russians.
He said he was bringing donated cars across the border and transferring the paperwork to a contact on the other side. He said the cars eventually will be used by the military. He said he does this every day and is far from alone. Many Ukrainians and Poles coordinate car transfers, some late at night.
He said it is not important where you live, whether in Poland or Atlanta, where his sister resides, because Ukrainians are united.
“Everybody cares,” he said. “I will always be fighting for them."
Katelyn Ferral is an investigative reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She is on assignment in the Ukraine region to cover the conflict there for the Paste BN NETWORK. Email her at kferral@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @katelynferral.