Fears of refugee crisis with up to 4m Ukrainians forced to flee

Two teenage sisters told how they joined a flood of Ukrainians leaving the country yesterday after hurling their belongings into rubbish bags and fleeing as the “red fire” of explosions lit the skies near their home in Kyiv.

Maria, 19, said she had been forced to leave her boyfriend behind to fight the advancing Russian army as she crossed over the Hungarian border with her 13-year-old sister Katia. Their parents were out of the country when Russia invaded on Thursday.

“We started getting plastic bags for garbage and shoving all kinds of clothes and documents, money, cash. And while this was happening we could hear these explosions outside. They were really big, you could see red fire coming out of them,” Maria told the BBC. “A family friend drove us to the border with Hungary.”

She said her boyfriend had stayed behind as he felt it was his duty to defend his country.

“My boyfriend is Jena. He is not able to leave. He will probably go to war. He is only 23. He feels it is his duty to save his country, save his family and his future, our future,” Maria said.

At least 120,000 people have left Ukraine since Thursday, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. An estimated 100,000 refugees have crossed the border into Poland, the agency said. It suggested up to four million of Ukraine’s 44 million population could eventually flee.

In Scotland, Sabir Zazai, chief executive of the Scottish Refugee Council, called on the UK to accept 10,000 Ukrainian refugees a year. Yesterday, the Scottish Government said: “If a resettlement programme is announced, or Ukraine nationals are accepted as part of existing programmes, we will work to support refugees arriving.”

At Medyka, in southern Poland, 50 miles from Lviv in western Ukraine, roads were packed with cars. Most of the refugees were women and children – most men stayed in Ukraine to fight.

“It is only women and children because for men it is forbidden. We leave all our fathers, men, husbands at home,” said Ludmila, 30, who broke down when asked about her husband.Ukraine banned men aged 18 to 60 from leaving as they may be conscripted to fight.

Poland is setting up reception centres and hospitals to deal with the rush of people, including those wounded in the fighting. Adam Niedzielski, the health minister, said Poland would set up a special medical train to ferry injured people to 120 Polish hospitals. “We think at this moment it would be possible to accept several thousand patients,” he said.

Deputy UN High Commissioner for Refugees Kelly Clemence said: “There are still large queues at borders. People are devastated, heartbroken.”