<figure id="attachment_237251" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237251"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="bc3305a5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/04/cda09c9132fe679034d2fee9ac5e1424.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237251" class="wp-caption-text">Since the full invasion by Russian troops, rallies by displaced Ukrainians have been held daily in Kraków&#8217;s central square.</figcaption></figure>
A mother nursing her baby, a parent and child feeding their pet dog, a family sitting still on a bench with exhausted expressions. Most of them were women and children, and the bags, suitcases, clothes, and stuffed animals beside them told of the reality of having fled the war. There were roughly 200 of them. There was a line at a special booth where food and daily necessities were provided, and volunteers from various countries were busy dealing with the situation.
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Poland has accepted approximately 2.29 million refugees from Ukraine (March 27, according to the United Nations). Kraków, the second largest city in Poland, is a beautiful old city registered as a World Heritage site, but its central station was overflowing with refugees who had crossed the border one after another.
Sitting on a bench in a train station with her three sons, Ilona (pseudonym, 31) arrived in Kraków after taking trains and buses from Kharkiv, Ukraine&#8217;s second largest city.
“The day after my youngest son celebrated his fourth birthday, Russia launched a full-scale invasion. The peaceful days of celebrating with a small family party seemed to be a lie.&#8221;
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As the war intensified, Ilona and her husband took refuge in the western city of Lviv. However, her husband volunteered to join the local defense forces, and Lviv was becoming increasingly dangerous due to daily warnings, so she had to flee Ukraine, leaving him behind. The Regional Defense Corps is a unit under the Ministry of Defense, composed of citizens.
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“I cry with worry when I think of my husband. My children may possibly never see him again. The school and other facilities in my hometown were destroyed by Russian airstrikes. My parents still live there. My mother&#8217;s health is not good, so my father is taking care of her. I can only pray to God for their safety.”
Ilona plans to take refuge in neighboring Slovakia.
The majority of the displaced are women and children because men aged 18-60 are restricted from leaving the country in order to strengthen the defense system in Ukraine. Even so, young men were seen very rarely in the train station.
One of them, Artem, 32, was born in Mariupol’, a fierce battleground. When the full-scale Russian invasion began, he and his wife were in the plane on their way back to Ukraine from a trip to Egypt. However, the airport where they were scheduled to land was closed, and they had to turn back to Egypt. After that, he arrived in Kraków via Hungary and other countries.
“My parents told me that the apartment in Mariupolis’ where I lived had been blown up. They were safe in their bunker, but there was no water, electricity, or gas in the destroyed city. I don&#8217;t want to go back to Ukraine to die.&#8221;
There are several other places in Kraków where displaced people live together. One of them is a closed shopping mall. Cots were lined up in a space that had been used for tenants, and the air was thick with the smell of life for about 200 people. Ludumira, 47, who has been living as an evacuee for the past 10 days, said, &#8220;The air was thick with the smell of life.”
“The food is not good. I want to live in a better environment. Can you help me find an apartment where I can live?&#8221;
During the course of the interview, she complained repeatedly. She seems to be feeling the stress of living in an unfamiliar group. On the other hand, there were evacuees whose companies paid for their apartments in Kraków, creating an apparent disparity between the two. However, for everyone, there is no change in their feelings for their hometown of birth.
“What do you want now?”
When asked this question, all expressed their earnest desire to go home as soon as possible.
When will the day come when the hopes of the displaced will be fulfilled?
<figure id="attachment_237249" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237249"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="24934303"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/04/f8b39068a73e999568d39435c5aab86e.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237249" class="wp-caption-text">Free food supplies were provided at Kraków&#8217;s central train station, and there was also a place for displaced people to rest and children to sleep soundly.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_237248" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237248"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ac73f791"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/04/957bf6a5ef8693fb2c994cb93c81466b.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237248" class="wp-caption-text">Participants in the protest rally are calling on NATO to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. This is to stop the Russian military invasion.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_237244" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237244"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="fc9b1cef"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/04/92e3e41f2987a31abb6fa04831dc79b5.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237244" class="wp-caption-text">Young Ukrainians living as evacuees in a closed shopping mall. Despite their hardships, they smiled friendly smiles when I pointed my lens at them.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_237246" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237246"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a7955c26"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/04/57518e1041cf5a6c033f30ad8be2955a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237246" class="wp-caption-text">In addition to food such as chocolate, biscuits, and water, evacuees are provided with daily necessities such as diapers for children, and there is a long line at the pick-up point.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_237252" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237252"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6aa3874c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/04/ef9d01a2f808879842cf642bcd41668a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237252" class="wp-caption-text">A mother fussing over her one-month-old daughter, along with her six-year-old daughter, the family of three fled the war. Due to traffic congestion, it took four days to travel by bus.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_237250" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237250"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4819859b"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/04/5dab349d5b7ecb71e237357df93f0874.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237250" class="wp-caption-text">In front of the Russian Consulate General in Kraków, placards were filled with &#8220;Putin is a murderer&#8221; and &#8220;Putin = Hitler&#8221; written in Russian.</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_237245" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237245"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d106dbc6"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/04/cf5f72e40462bf5e70f070986ba36007.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237245" class="wp-caption-text">Unpublished Cut: The &#8220;Soul Cries&#8221; of Ukrainian Refugees Flooding into Poland</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_237247" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237247"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a938ca8a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2022/04/faf2c607799f945de8fa4710564a83d9.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237247" class="wp-caption-text">Unpublished Cut: The &#8220;Soul Cries&#8221; of Ukrainian Refugees Flooding into Poland</figcaption></figure>
From the April 15, 2022 issue of FRIDAY

 Takehide Mizutani 

 As of March 27, the number of displaced Ukrainians in Poland reached approximately 2.29 million. In one shopping mall, as many as 200 displaced people were crowded together. Each family grieves differently, but all want the same thing: a better life for their children.

Local Report: 200 people living together in a closed shopping mall. Children say they want to go home. A wife sheds tears for her husband fighting in the National Defense Forces.

“Soul Cries” as Ukrainian Refugees Flood Poland

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