As the masses flee Ukraine to find refuge in neighboring countries, winter weather has complicated those travels. AccuWeather forecasters say another frigid blast is in store for the region.
Refugees fleeing conflict in Ukraine warm up near a fire after arriving at the Medyka border crossing in Poland, Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. The head of the United Nations refugee agency says more than a half a million people had fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on Thursday. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Amid the peril of war from attacking Russian forces and under the frigid grip of wintry weather, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have fled their war-torn homeland in search of refuge in neighboring countries. According to The Associated Press, more than 500,000 Ukrainians have fled the country since Russian forces began invading last week.
The rush of Ukrainian men, women and children toward the country's borders has resulted in extended wait times that have lasted for many hours and even days for some. It's there, in those long lines outside countries such as Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, where refugees have been exposed to the harsh elements, including freezing temperatures.
In the Polish city of Medyka, which is just over Ukraine's western border with Poland and about 50 miles west of Lviv, lines of fleeing Ukrainians have stretched for dozens of miles, Reuters reported. The city not only represents the region's busiest border crossing location but has also recorded some of its lowest temperatures in recent days. West of Medyka, many refugees arrived in Przemysl under snowy conditions on Monday, Reuters reported.
In Lviv, people bundled in winter coats, hats, scarves and mittens have crowded into stations awaiting a spot on the next train to carry them to safety.
“It is likely that this is the largest amount of displaced people in the shortest amount of time since World War II,” ABC correspondent Matt Gutman reported as crowds swelled around him at a train station in Lviv on Monday. Refugees could be seen walking toward the Poland border as they dragged luggage with snow falling around them, Gutman's report showed.
But outside of those stations, many others have resorted to walking the long distance to Poland in gusty conditions that hurled wind and snow at them as they dragged personal belongings behind them.
"I took a train from Kyiv to Lviv to a point where the taxi put us," a Ukrainian woman told Reuters. "I walked the last 50 kilometers," she said, a distance that converts to about 31 miles.
As the thousands of people wait for their transport to safety, many have huddled around fires and grabbed whatever warm clothing they could bundle under.
In Romania, volunteers scrambled to provide raincoats to those waiting in the snowy conditions, as more than 74,000 Ukrainians have arrived in the nation since Feb. 24, officials told Reuters.
Back in Medyka, temperatures dipped to lows of below 28 degrees Fahrenheit for five straight days to close the month of February. The average low temperature in Medyka on March 1 is 28 F and the average high temperature is 39 F, so there were a few days in late February on which temperatures climbed above normal. However, according to the AccuWeather forecast both high and low temps there will be below normal heading into the start of March.
Daily low temperatures in Medyka, Poland, have consistently dipped below freezing in the days since refugees have sought to enter the city from Ukraine.
According to AccuWeather meteorologists, tumultuous conditions heading to the eastern European region could stand to further complicate travel for weary refugees.
"A storm in the western Black Sea will bring accumulating snow to eastern Bulgaria, far eastern Romania, Moldova, and much of Ukraine this week," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tyler Roys said. "Rain will mix with snow across south and southeast central Ukraine. Rain will occur across southeastern Ukraine. Light accumulations are expected with the highest amounts in higher elevations and in Crimea."
Behind that storm, even colder weather could be in store.
"There is the potential for a cold shot to move across Ukraine on March 6 and continue for several days through the first full week of March," Roys said.
Warming the refugees one meal at a time
Along with thousands of Ukrainians searching for safety, Medyka and other Polish border-crossing locations have become temporary hubs for World Central Kitchen, a non-profit organization that provides meals to individuals in areas struck by natural disasters and global calamity. Led by celebrity chef José Andrés, the organization has served thousands of warm meals to Ukrainians in the past week.
"People are cold, families are cold," Andrés said in a video posted to Twitter on Sunday. "They carry with them whatever they can bring, usually a suitcase, they are bringing children. It’s freezing cold, I don’t know how people make it, but they are escaping trouble."
As Andrés and his fellow chefs have captured and shared on social media, the steadily falling snow has blanketed the city of Rzeszów. It was there on Monday night where Andrés posted a tearful video pleading for the world to care and pray for the refugees still stuck in the cold, waiting to make it to warmth and safety.
"All the people of the world are Ukrainians right now. As you see, the snow is coming, the temperatures are really freezing," he said. "It’s hard to know that even in this moment, there are many women... walking with children for hours out of Ukraine to safety, to different countries. And again, it’s freezing cold. Every country is welcoming them and everybody is trying to provide blankets, feeding them, providing a place to live temporarily. But again, it’s hard to know that there are still people walking the street, spending the night in a car with no way to heat themselves."
World Central Kitchen CEO Nate Mook shared from Ukraine on Monday night that there were hundreds of cars lined up to enter Poland. “Many of them have been waiting 10, 20 sometimes even 30 hours to get here,” he said. “So we’re here going down the line, handing out sandwiches, fresh fruit, chocolates for the kids, whatever we can do to support as they are here. It is very cold out right now and we’re just trying to do the little that we can.”
On Tuesday, the organization said on Twitter that its disaster response efforts have expanded to Romania, where the agency will be working with restaurants in areas such as Ștefănești to serve refugee families hot meals as they arrive in the country.
Here’s how you can help the millions of Ukrainian refugees fleeing their homeland to the eastern edge of the European Union (into Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania).
- International Medical Corps -- A global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs. Donate here: https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/
- United Help Ukraine -- A charitable organization receiving and distributing donations, food and medical supplies to Ukrainian IDPs, people of Ukraine affected by Russia’s invasion. Donate here: https://unitedhelpukraine.org/
- Airlink -- A nonprofit organization providing airlift of emergency supplies and relief workers for 130-plus aid organizations responding to disasters and other humanitarian crises. Donate here: https://airlinkflight.org/
- World Central Kitchen -- Operation that deploys food resources around the globe to areas hit by natural disasters and conflict. Donate here: https://wck.org/
- CARE -- A leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. Donate here: https://www.care.org/
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