More than half a million people have fled west from Ukraine, their lives turned upside-down in an instant when Russia launched its invasion of the country.
Reporting from the main square in Krakow, Poland, 愛污传媒 Chief Anchor and Senior Editor Lisa LaFlamme spoke to three recent refugees late Tuesday afternoon.
American Jeff Vinall and his Ukrainian wife Anna started preparing for the worst when Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a rambling, falsehood-riddled speech about Ukraine on Feb. 21, just days before the assault began.
鈥淲e watched his speech on live Russian television and he said Ukrainian people do not have a right to exist,鈥 Jeff Vinall told LaFlamme. 鈥淗e said, their culture, their language and their identity is fictional鈥攁nd I turned to Anna and I said, 鈥楿krainians are to Putin what Jews were to Hitler. We got to get ready to get out of here.鈥欌
鈥淢y father said, 鈥楴o, it鈥檚 not possible, Belarus will not go for us,鈥欌 Anna Vinall added. 鈥淎nd today they鈥檙e coming to kill them all.鈥
Anna鈥檚 parents, grandmother, and sister鈥檚 family remain in the country. She says it鈥檚 difficult to get any news from them.
鈥淭hey can reach [us] for only two seconds just to say they are alive,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 just said to my mom that I loved her.鈥
Alongside the couple, another expat had recently escaped with his wife, her mother and their two teenage sons. Originally from Scotland, Stuart McKenzie had lived in Ukraine for 20 years.
鈥淚t was a big decision to leave,鈥 he told 愛污传媒. 鈥淲e have families there, we've got extended families there, we鈥檝e got pets there.鈥
Jeff Vinall wants the world to stop buying Russian gas and financially isolate the country 鈥渦ntil Vladimir Putin is out of office and tried for war crimes.鈥
鈥淢y city, my family and everyone I love is facing annihilation from the Russian war machine,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 was sad yesterday, I鈥檓 angry today.鈥
鈥淗e's killing our kids, he's killing out mothers, he鈥檚 killing our fathers,鈥 Anna said of Putin while holding back tears. 鈥淗e鈥檚 killing the whole nation.鈥
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