Russia-Ukraine crisis: Blinken hears harrowing tales from refugees fleeing Ukraine

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday visited a welcome centre set up by Polish authorities in what once was a shopping mall in Korczowa, close to the border with Ukraine, where roughly 3,000 refugees are taking shelter after the Russian attacks on their homeland.

America’s top diplomat heard harrowing tales from mothers and their children who described long and perilous journeys — and the shock of the sudden disruption and the fear for their lives — after fleeing the devastation of the war.

“Near our home we heard bombs,” said Venera Ahmadi, 12, who said she came with her brother and sister, six dogs and seven cats from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, more than 600 kilometers (372 miles) away. “We walked to the border, I don’t know how many hours. We crossed the border on foot.”

Her 16-year-old sister, Jasmine, said: “I was scared I would die.”

Natalia Kadygrob, 48, reached the centre with her four adopted children from Kropyvnytskyi, almost 800km by bus on their way to her brother’s home in Germany. Her husband stayed behind.

“There they bombed planes at the airport,” she said. “Of course we were afraid.”

Tatyana, 58, who wouldn’t give her last name, came with her daughter, Anna, 37, and her 6- and 1-year-old daughters, Katya and Kira, from Kharkiv, about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away. “They were shooting on the street,” Tatyana said. Anna said her home had been destroyed by a shell or a rocket.

She was in the basement with her daughters when the explosion happened. “They should be in school,” Anna said. “They are children, they don’t understand.”

Blinken earlier was in the city of Rzeszow for talks with top Polish officials before heading to the border and a frontier post. He met Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau a day after attending a Nato foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels. The military alliance pledged to step up support for eastern flank members such as Poland to counter the Russian invasion.

Although Nato has ruled out establishing a no-fly zone over non-member Ukraine, it has significantly boosted both military and humanitarian assistance. Rzeszow is about 80km from the Ukraine border and its airport has become a hub for flights carrying such aid.

Blinken said his visit to Poland was coming at “one of the most urgent moments in the long history between our two countries” and said recent deployments of US soldiers to the country would continue.

Rau said Poland had already taken in more than 700,000 refugees from Ukraine and that he expected hundreds of thousands more in the coming weeks unless Russia backs down.