Steady stream of Ukrainians cross into Poland seeking safety from Russia's attack

Steady stream of Ukrainians cross into Poland seeking safety from Russia's attack

Transcript¹

NPR's Leila Fadel travels to the Polish-Ukrainian border to talk with some of the tens of thousands of Ukrainians who have fled their homes in recent days as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Every hour seems to bring a new development in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Over the weekend, European nations took dramatic steps to isolate² Russia. They blocked flights from Russian airlines, and many flights out of Moscow are canceled today. Russia's ruble fell dramatically in value today as U.S. and European sanctions begin to take effect. European nations are sending weapons to Ukraine, including warplanes. One thing that seems not to have changed is position of Kyiv. Ukrainian forces remain in control so far, frustrating³ a Russian advance. And Ukrainians have sent officials out of the city and out of the country, in fact, to negotiate today with Russia. As fighting continues, thousands of people are leaving Ukraine, and our co-host Leila Fadel has been meeting some of them. She's near the Ukrainian border at Chechov (ph), Poland. Leila, welcome.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Thanks, Steve.

INSKEEP: We've seen videos of the giant lines of cars heading out of Ukraine, waiting for their turn at the border crossing. And of course, you're at the other side to see them when they get there. What have you seen and heard?

FADEL: I mean, it's just a mass exodus⁴ of people fleeing into Poland for safety, some on foot. U.N.'s refugee agency says 422,000 Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries so far. Almost half came here to Poland, some on foot as I mentioned. So we drove an hour to the border to see for ourselves.

(SOUNDBITE OF DRIVING AMBIENCE)

FADEL: Some are coming by car or bus and some by train to the station in Przemysl. The city's about six miles from the border with Ukraine, and in normal times - just a few days ago - it was a typical border town. Ukrainians and Poles would cross the border for work and return home to their families. But today the train station is where the displaced arrived.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRAIN STATION AMBIENCE)

FADEL: Women and children get off the second train of the day - a mother with a pink roller bag carrying her son in a blue parka; other women pushing strollers, juggling⁵ plastic bags, suitcases and children. One woman screams from the tracks, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin vile⁶ for shelling airports, the capital city Kyiv.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Ukrainian).

FADEL: She says, "We didn't know where we'd be sleeping. We were running to save the lives of our children."

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Ukrainian).

FADEL: Nearby on a grassy⁷ clearing, we meet a pensive⁸ 16-year-old, his face framed by wavy⁹, long hair. He's got a hoop¹⁰ earring¹¹ and a colorful scarf draped around his neck.

What's your name?

DAMIEN: I'm Damien.

FADEL: Damien what?

DAMIEN: I prefer to call myself Lebowski.

FADEL: (Laughter) You prefer to call yourself Lebowski?

DAMIEN: Yes.

FADEL: Why?

DAMIEN: 'Cause I find it a great movie and quite funny.

FADEL: It is...

His mother asks us not to use their last names in these uncertain times. He's huddled¹² with his mom, sister...

(SOUNDBITE OF DOG BARKING)

FADEL: ...Their little white dog Archibald and their bags. Until war broke out just five days ago, Damien lived with his father in Lviv in the west of Ukraine.

DAMIEN: The Russian troops were moving so fast I was afraid they could manage to get the blitzkrieg right and invade Lviv in no time. So mother has came. She picked me up. She picked my sister up. And as soon as we could, we packed our stuff, and we hopped¹³ onto to the first train. But it was way more horrible because, first of all, the train was flooded with 3,000 people, approximately. And it broke twice on the way. We spent six hours on Ukraine's border trying to get our passports checked.

FADEL: His mother Anna was in Kyiv when Russia first attacked the city. She wasn't expecting it. She even had tickets to Germany for a weekend getaway. And now she's on a different journey.

ANNA: Yes, it was very hard because - 15 hours, we have not sit.

FADEL: Fifteen hours standing¹⁴?

ANNA: Yeah. Sometimes sit on the bag. And so many people and so many children in the wagon¹⁵ (ph), and they scream, and people started to be angry. They fight. They talk to each other with emotion because it's - you know, it's a hard situation. When you goes in this train, you don't know how long time you have to wait.

FADEL: One of the most striking things about this crowd is the men. There are almost no men. It's all women and children without their fathers, their brothers, sons, partners. Ukraine declared martial¹⁶ law, so if you're a man between 18 and 60, you can't leave the country. You might be called to fight. So families like Damien's made a hard choice.

DAMIEN: I wouldn't like to be captured, tortured. I wouldn't like my freedom to be taken.

FADEL: Is that what you thought would happen to you?

DAMIEN: Yes. But then the possibility appeared (ph) to leave, and I got carried away in between two islands, I would say. And one island is leaving somewhere safely, and the second island is my dearest father, who cannot leave with us. And I had to leave because I didn't want my father or me to possibly see each other die in the most horrible ways.

FADEL: You shouldn't have to think about that at 16.

DAMIEN: But I did.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).

FADEL: Outside the station, a man calls out instructions on where people can find food, accommodations and other help. There are boxes and bags of water, tea, loaves of bread and treats. A little girl leans over in her red jacket and popsicle-patterned backpack to pick up a chocolate bar. Poles hold signs offering rooms and rides. Among them is Katarzyna Fedec and her husband.

KATARZYNA FEDEC: We're waiting for people. That's all we have (ph), yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Laughter).

FADEL: So you're here waiting to see if you can help?

FEDEC: I'm waiting for friends of my friends, two womans and six kids. They ask me, could I want to do this? I say, OK, I have no problem.

FADEL: And the people you're waiting for, are they on this train?

FEDEC: We hope, yes.

FADEL: Moments later, they spot one of the women - a mother, two daughters and a baby boy.

OKSANA ONOFRIICHUK: OK. My name is Oksana.

FADEL: So who's with you?

ONOFRIICHUK: I'm here with my three children - Marka, Nadia and Mcar. And we come from Lviv.

FADEL: Lviv.

ONOFRIICHUK: Yes.

FADEL: And how old are your children?

ONOFRIICHUK: He's 15 months old. She's almost 12. She's almost 7 years old.

FADEL: It was a 40-hour journey for Oksana Onofriichuk. At the end of it all, she calls her husband, a youth pastor¹⁷ at Bethesda Church in Lviv.

ONOFRIICHUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).

PAVLO: (Speaking Ukrainian).

ONOFRIICHUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).

PAVLO: (Speaking Ukrainian).

ONOFRIICHUK: (Speaking Ukrainian).

FADEL: You are so cute. You have two hearts next to your husband.

(LAUGHTER)

ONOFRIICHUK: Yes, before and after.

FADEL: Are you scared?

ONOFRIICHUK: Me?

FADEL: Yeah.

ONOFRIICHUK: Like, I rely on God. But yes, I am scared because I am human.

FADEL: Yeah. What did you tell him before you left? What was your...

ONOFRIICHUK: That I love him very much, and I want him to be safe, and I want him to come here and pick us up because I won't make it alone there (crying).

FADEL: The fleeing, the bombardments - it all hasn't fully¹⁸ sunken in.

ONOFRIICHUK: You know, it's like I'm in a movie (laughter), or I have a nightmare, and I want to wake up, you know, 'cause it's unbelievable.

FADEL: The next day, we call Oksana's husband.

PAVLO: Yes? Hello?

FADEL: We wanted to see what it's been like for Pavlo. It's the first time they've been apart.

Do you feel lonely without them?

PAVLO: Yes, yes, yes, very.

FADEL: Very, you said?

PAVLO: It's so hard.

FADEL: Now that he's without his family, he goes back and forth¹⁹ to the train station, picking up the displaced from the east, trying to find safety and shelter in the west of the country. He stepped out of church to chat with us. The service, it's smaller now, many praying at their homes. His prayers?

PAVLO: I pray for peace, pray for the end of war in Ukraine, pray for - safe for families, people's kids, for our soldiers, for our army.

FADEL: What were the last things that you told your wife and the kids before they went on the train?

PAVLO: I love you. I don't know when we will see - when I will see you. And don't worry about me. I love you.

INSKEEP: We've been listening to people who were talking with NPR's Leila Fadel along the border between Ukraine and Poland. And, Leila, I want people to know, if they don't, that you've covered a lot of wars; you've covered a lot of mass displacement²⁰ in places like Syria and Iraq and Libya. Does this feel any different to you?

FADEL: I mean, there is this kind of grim pattern to these moments. And when I first meet people, like I did this weekend, at the place where they can finally breathe and think beyond how to be safe, they still haven't truly absorbed what's happening to their lives, their country, their homes. So we ran into one woman at a border crossing here. She was walking in on foot, and in any other situation, I would think she was going on a hike. She had a yoga mat tucked into her oversized backpack. But she was escaping Kyiv, walking into Poland. When I asked her what it was like at home, all she said was scared - and then broke down and walked away with their kids. It was like she hadn't had any space to fully wrap her head around what was happening to her. But I should note, Steve, that there are also Ukrainians going the other way, going home to fight or to help people in the midst of this war.

INSKEEP: What does it feel like for people who are in the chaos²¹ at that border crossing?

FADEL: Yeah. I mean, it's shocking. I think they're still in the middle of the trauma²², not trying to grapple with what's happened to their country, to their community. For a lot of these people, especially from the west of Ukraine, away from the eight-year conflict with Russia in the east, this was the first time they'd ever been through something like this. But our colleague Arezou Rezvani and I met one family who'd been displaced by war before. Bahram Taymorshah was on the Polish side of the border with his kids, his wife, his mom. They crossed on foot, abandoned their car. Just three years ago, they fled Afghanistan for safety in Kyiv. I asked them what's - what they're going to do now, and Arezou is interpreting here.

BAHRAM TAYMORSHAH: (Non-English language spoken, laughter).

AREZOU REZVANI, BYLINE²³: "Do we go? Do we stay? Where do we go? All those questions."

FADEL: I mean, I can't help hear you laughing. Is it because you're shocked? Or...

TAYMORSHAH: (Non-English language spoken).

FADEL: And they're saying with all the tragedy they've seen, they laugh to survive. It calms them.

INSKEEP: Leila, thanks very much for your reporting.

FADEL: You're welcome. Thank you, Steve.

INSKEEP: We'll be hearing NPR's Leila Fadel all week from Ukraine and Poland. And we'll mention also that negotiations²⁴ are beginning today between Russia and Ukraine, although Ukraine's president says he's not optimistic.

(SOUNDBITE OF SIMON VOUET'S "SOLEMN RESOLVE")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

3 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 exodus   

v.大批离去，成群外出

参考例句：

• The medical system is facing collapse because of an exodus of doctors.由于医生大批离去，医疗系统面临崩溃。
• Man's great challenge at this moment is to prevent his exodus from this planet.人在当前所遇到的最大挑战，就是要防止人从这个星球上消失。

5 juggling   

n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词

参考例句：

• He was charged with some dishonest juggling with the accounts. 他被指控用欺骗手段窜改账目。
• The accountant went to prison for juggling his firm's accounts. 会计因涂改公司的帐目而入狱。

6 vile   

adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的

参考例句：

• Who could have carried out such a vile attack?会是谁发起这么卑鄙的攻击呢？
• Her talk was full of vile curses.她的话里充满着恶毒的咒骂。

7 grassy   

adj.盖满草的；长满草的

参考例句：

• They sat and had their lunch on a grassy hillside.他们坐在长满草的山坡上吃午饭。
• Cattle move freely across the grassy plain.牛群自由自在地走过草原。

8 pensive   

a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的

参考例句：

• He looked suddenly sombre,pensive.他突然看起来很阴郁，一副忧虑的样子。
• He became so pensive that she didn't like to break into his thought.他陷入沉思之中,她不想打断他的思路。

9 wavy   

adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的

参考例句：

• She drew a wavy line under the word.她在这个词的下面画了一条波纹线。
• His wavy hair was too long and flopped just beneath his brow.他的波浪式头发太长了，正好垂在他的眉毛下。

10 hoop   

n.（篮球）篮圈，篮

参考例句：

• The child was rolling a hoop.那个孩子在滚铁环。
• The wooden tub is fitted with the iron hoop.木盆都用铁箍箍紧。

11 earring   

n.耳环，耳饰

参考例句：

• How long have you worn that earring?你戴那个耳环多久了？
• I have an earring but can't find its companion.我现在只有一只耳环,找不到另一只了。

12 huddled   

挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
• We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。

13 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

14 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

15 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

16 martial   

adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的

参考例句：

• The sound of martial music is always inspiring.军乐声总是鼓舞人心的。
• The officer was convicted of desertion at a court martial.这名军官在军事法庭上被判犯了擅离职守罪。

17 pastor   

n.牧师，牧人

参考例句：

• He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
• We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师：教会的事是由五位执事管理的。

18 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

19 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

20 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。

21 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

22 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

23 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

24 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。