Ten million people have fled their homes in Ukraine, according to the UN. Many refugees are heading west, passing through Slovakia. A very popular route.
With our special correspondent in Košice, Alexis Bedu
Coming from the loudspeakers on the platform, the messages are in Ukrainian. The train for Bratislava is about to leave. Inside, entire families. Every day, around 10,000 people pass through Slovakia, especially through Košice, the country’s second largest city about 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. It is from here that refugees can take a train and go further into the European Union.
Margarita is in her fifties. She explains that her house was destroyed in the bombings in Lugansk, Donbass. She left her mother there who, she says, would rather die than leave.
“I promised myself not to speak Russian anymore”
Come what may, they seek to reach the west. In this family with three children, Tatiana, the grandmother, has her arms full of bags. ” We wanted to stay in Košice because people are nice here, but we were told there was no work, so we are going to Gelina, in central Slovakia. We don’t know anyone there “, she says.
Margarita from Lugansk trembles with emotion. In perfect Russian, she expresses her anger against Vladimir Poutine. ” I decided to cut ties with all my Russian friends. As you can see I speak Russian but I promised myself not to speak it anymore. Now I will learn Ukrainian “, she testifies.
She brandishes her mobile phone and shows the photo of a bombed building. Last snapshot taken before an exile, with no return date.
►Also read: They will wait for peace, a Ukrainian refugee family on the Slovak side