Ukrainian refugee with 4-year-old child describes escape to Poland
Valeriia Krishchuk says she had to leave her husband behind in order to leave the country.
Many Ukrainians were forced to leave behind their homes and families after the Russian invasion last week, including Valeriia Krishchuk who described to "Fox & Friends" Friday her journey to Poland with her four-year-old daughter.
Krishchuk said she and her husband left "straight away on the 24th" when the invasion began.
"We were driving for six days to get to the Polish border," she told Ainsley Earhardt, adding they were taking turns driving nonstop on jammed roads.
She said once they got to the border, she and her husband had to part ways because he wanted to fight for the country and "the whole Western world."
UN SAYS AT LEAST 227 CIVILIANS DEAD IN UKRAINE
"We got to the border and then we had to say goodbye. And he had to go back. … I was crying all the time while we were driving," she explained.
Krishchuk said she's staying at a hostel in Poland and is not sure where she will go next, hoping to be able to get to the United States. Krishchuk is among a growing number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the country. The number of Ukrainian refugees could soon hit the one million mark, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
A woman fleeing from Ukraine is overcome by emotions at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland, Friday, March 4, 2022. ( AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
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More than 874,000 people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last week, the agency reported Wednesday. That number is "rising exponentially" and could grow to a million in a matter of hours.
The refugees are streaming into countries neighboring Ukraine, including Poland, Moldova, Hungary and Slovakia.
The number of refugees has spiked quickly in the last few days. The United Nations’ refugee agency estimated on Sunday that 368,000 had fled the nation, before rising to 500,000 refugees on Monday. More than 200,000 people have fled the nation since Tuesday, UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said Wednesday.
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