Thread by @terrelljstarr

Read @draditinerurkar’s piece on the trauma Ukrainian refugees endure fleeing their homeland because of Putin’s war.

Once in their host countries, they have a lifetime of mental pain to heal from.

I have a direct example to share with you.

Thread
forbes.com/sites/aditiner…

I’m with @AndriyKyiv who is helping Ukrainian refugees reach an EU border that’ll accept them inside their countries. Meet Yulia, her 9-year-old twins Polina and Milana, and her aunt, Svitlana. It took nearly 2 days to get them to safety. Here’s what it took to make it happen.

First, this family is EXTREMELY traumatized and had anxiety levels I’ve never seen in a human being. Before Andriy picked them up, the family was in their basement for 3 days taking cover from air strikes like everyone else. They’d only emerge when Andriy picked them up.

Yulia’s husband didn’t join them because he joined the Territorial Defense force of volunteers given weapons to fight. Most men aren’t able to leave anyway because they’re expected to stay and fight. That’s the 1st family trauma: separation from the father/husband.

Getting to the border is very expensive, as you need a car, gas, plenty of refills, food, lodging during the trip for everyone, incidentals, etc. everyone can’t afford the trip to the border even if they wanted to make the journey.

Andriy is working with an EU-based charity supporting refugees and taking a big risk coming and going from Kyiv. The family was so scared that they never left Andriy’s side—or mine. They’d freak out if we left their side for too long. That puts stress on Andriy, too .

Polina and Melana kept it together fairly well, all things considered. But they’ve been uprooted from their normal lives and it’s up to their mom and aunt to put their mental health to the side to comfort the kids. It was difficult to watch.

This is the family’s life in the back of Andriy’s jeep. Imagine what’s it like to decide what part of your life is most important to stuff into the back of a vehicle as you flee a war. That’s what this family and thousands like it have to do every day here in Ukraine.

We stopped overnight at a resort town overnight where we our host refused payment after several attempts to pay her. But most places expect payment and many refugees don’t have money for lodging for several days at a time.

Skipping a few things, but this is the family at the Ukraine-Slovak border. It was intense. We waited 3 hours to board our bus, a relatively short wait. I went all the way to the Slovak side to hand them off to the charity there.

There’s so much more to this story I’ll share in an article at a later time, but here is the crew, with @AndriyKyiv as our leader and me as the journo documenting it all.
Bottom line: being a refugee is hell and so is the senseless war that causes it.