Ukrainians' escape by rail, explained

Key Takeaways

[Music] ukraine's railroad has become a lifeline for refugees all these stations are gateways to safety that lead to lev which has become a vital way out of the country from here most travel to shemeshl a small polish town eight miles from the ukrainian border its train station has transformed into a relief center inside volunteers welcome the refugees and offer them food as they figure out where to go next many have brought their pets on the long journey but they've only brought as much as they can carry like marina and her son who spent the night here at the train station after leaving everything behind naturally [Music] spent six hours waiting in an underpass on her journey here were asleep in their homes when their city came under fire as russia continues to move further into ukraine this critical web of escape routes is increasingly under attack making it harder and harder for millions of ukrainians to escape the invasion [Music] since russia invaded ukraine on february 24th more than 3 million people have fled their homes nearly all of them are moving west away from russia and towards these countries over here and the vast majority around 2 million are going here to poland most of them are women and children ukraine is requiring most men between the ages of 18 and 60 to stay behind and encouraging them to fight since the war began ukraine has closed its airspace to civilian flights and the roads have become increasingly dangerous railway stations are the most important points in the country so far because people can get on the train on these cities and move to west and save their lives that's alexander commission he's in charge of a mobile command team that has evacuated more than 2 million people by train we focus on different cities depending on the bombing once new cities are under shelling we increase the capacity for these cities things change so fast ukrainian railways releases a daily schedule and so far the most popular roads are kiev live at the stations people are packed into evacuation trains and it's in large part because of alexander's policy all people who would like to leave the city can do it within one day so we finish the day with zero people on the railway station but it's not just about getting on the train the journey itself is getting more dangerous too on march 13th russian forces hit an evacuation train here killing the conductor and stranding hundreds further north near kharkiv an undetonated bomb landed right by the train tracks a few days earlier ukrainian railway workers had to defuse and remove it damaged tracks like these can temporarily stop escape routes we got the greatest team of infrastructure professionals who start repairing the track once the plumbing stops and they do it in hours not these but bomb bridges like this one can shut them down permanently the areas over here where russia is fighting for control are especially dangerous for trains to reach as a result most of these stations shut down soon after the war began including mikolaiv the port city martina and sabina fled [Music] their parents drove them to odessa where the train station was still operating so they could make it to levitt poland has become the top destination for refugees because it has a very long border with ukraine it's also culturally and linguistically similar and already has over a million ukrainians living and working in the country but it's also because soon after russia invaded ukraine the eu did something unprecedented europe will be there for them not only in the first days but also in the weeks and months to come they activated this directive which provides temporary protection it was first issued in 2001 after a decade of wars in southeastern europe displaced millions of people the directive allowed for temporary protection for people fleeing from non-eu countries but it was never invoked until now what the temporary protection directive offers is a range of rights that are applicable immediately and these include residency rights right to have access to the labor market right to health care social protection but also right to education what is also notable is that this mechanism was adopted by all the eu member states this means that the millions of people fleeing ukraine can continue on to any of the 27 eu countries with these protections for up to three years this is a testimony to the large scale of the crisis that we're seeing now in europe but despite this directive not all seeking refuge have been treated the same way on the ground many non-ukrainians have experienced racism as they fled reports include being pushed to the back of the lines at the border and being turned away at hotels in chemical though thousands keep arriving every day says for many refugees arriving in chemical this is just the first stop out of ukraine martina and sabina have family in poland to help them get started but the vast majority will go on to reception centers or move deeper into europe and farther away from home [Music] [Music] foreign some people cry some people smile some people are happy some people are not happy but finally all the people who left the cities which are shelves they can sleep at least in a calm place and without a vomit that's the most important thing we keep in mind that gives me understanding that we do right job [Music] foreign yeah