Ukrainian refugees - 9th March 2022

1.5 million refugees have left Ukraine. These people are looking for safety in other countries. This is a serious problem in Europe. The number of people is increasing very quickly.

Most refugees arrive on foot. They left everything they have behind. Anna's a teacher from Kyiv.

Anna Golovko: "I'm, I'm from Kyiv, Ukraine and we are going to Krakow, Poland. It takes three days to take this place."

Volunteers bring food and clothes for the refugees. They help the refugees to travel too. This helps them get to friends and family. Some volunteers drive people in their own cars. Others are making space for refugees in their homes.

Most refugees are women, children and older people. Men from 18 to 60 years old are still in Ukraine. They have to stay and fight. But international students, foreign workers and Roma are looking for safety too.

Thousands of people in Ukraine are now homeless. There will be more refugees. Another four million people could leave Ukraine soon. Russia said people could leave safely. But they didn't allow this. Now, it's offering refugees some safe roads into Russia.

But doctors and paramedics are going into Ukraine. They want to help.

Mike Hughes: "I'm going purely as a humanitarian to obviously assisting the wounded and hopefully, kind of, prevent some of the loss of life that's currently happening out there. I'm also going to go out there and try and train some of the civilians and some of the military in medical treatments and techniques that we use in the British services."