PRZEMYSL, POLAND (REUTERS) – Ninety-year-old Olha Moliboha and her daughter managed to get out of the northern Ukrainian metropolis of Chernihiv simply in time.
Soon after they left this week, Russian bombing destroyed a bridge linking Chernihiv to Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
Local officers say it’s now not possible to evacuate civilians or to herald humanitarian provides.
After reaching the jap Polish city of Przemysl, Ms Moliboha mentioned there was no operating water or electrical energy in Chernihiv, however that this may not cease residents defending themselves.
“We will defend ourselves to the last, as long as we are alive,” she advised Reuters on Saturday at Przemysl railway station.
“We believe that we will win.”
Sitting on a wheelchair, along with her canine on her knees, she mentioned Ukrainians had been attacked by their “so-called brothers, older brothers”.
“They attacked and bombed us. They destroyed everything in our city. So many children have died, so many women. All our houses are destroyed, they are not there any more. There is nowhere to live,” she mentioned tearfully.
Ms Moliboha’s daughter Nataliya Lukoshina expressed gratitude to volunteers who’re serving to evacuate folks from Ukraine.
“They brought us out with the last column of vehicles. The next day, the bridge was destroyed, they say, and nobody can be brought out (of Chernihiv),” she mentioned.
“There are still children there, a lot of children. I don’t know how they’ll live.”
Chernihiv Mayor Vladyslav Atroshenko mentioned on Saturday that 44 severely wounded folks, together with three kids, couldn’t be evacuated to safer areas for remedy.
In feedback on Ukrainian tv, Mr Atroshenko mentioned there have been as much as 130,000 folks with out heating, electrical energy or water provides in Chernihiv, which he mentioned was below heavy bombardment by Russian forces.
The metropolis had a pre-war inhabitants of round 290,000, he added.
After greater than 4 weeks of combating, practically 3.8 million folks have left Ukraine, with round 2.3 million fleeing to Poland.
United States President Joe Biden met among the refugees throughout a go to to the Polish capital Warsaw on Saturday and described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “butcher”.
Przemysl station turned an essential entry level for refugees within the early levels of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Its halls and corridors bustled with refugees, volunteers and members of the general public, a few of them providing lifts to different European nations.
The variety of folks crossing the border from Ukraine has waned since then.
Mr Putin calls Russia’s army actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” the nation.
Russia denies concentrating on civilians.
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