More than 1.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the start of Russia's military offensive, the UN said on Sunday.
Hungary, one of Ukraine's neighboring countries, received more than 144,000 people on its territory.
The daily life of the inhabitants of Zahony, a Hungarian border town, has been turned upside down by the arrival of these refugees fleeing the bombardments.
From our special correspondent in Hungary,
Anastasiia and Murad's life froze overnight.
“On the morning of February 25, I received a call from my mother.
She was in tears and she said to me: "The war has begun", breathes the young Ukrainian.
Married for five years, the 28-year-old couple had just bought a house in Kiev.
Their existence now fits in two small wheeled suitcases.
Friday March 4, after seven days of bombardment, the lovers resigned themselves to heading for the station.
"Our only option was to leave," said Murad, an Israeli citizen and dental student in Kyiv.
After four hours of waiting in the middle of the crowd of residents trying to flee the capital, they manage to get on a train.
Their destination is then unknown to them but no matter.
The journey takes almost twenty-four hours, sixteen of which are spent standing in the narrow corridor of a train car.
Zahony, a small border town located in the far northeast of Hungary, is their first base.
Like them, 2,000 to 3,000 people have been arriving here every day since the war started.
Located three hours by road or train from Budapest, the town has become the country's main entry point for Ukrainian refugees.
A momentum of historic solidarity
In barely ten days, the traces of the neighboring war have crept everywhere into the city.
In the hall of the station, hundreds of volunteers offer food, blankets and hot drinks to families getting off trains arriving day and night.
The station's former restaurant has been transformed into a nursery and the children, very numerous, run with the ball in their feet or pencil in their hand between the bags and luggage piled up here and there.
On this side of the border, the Russian invasion also took everyone by surprise, recognizes Helmeczi László, independent mayor of Zahony: “We were far from imagining that our city was going to experience such a situation.
But we didn't have time to panic as there were so many things to do.
The inhabitants are all volunteers and cooperate.
At the entrance to the cultural center located a few minutes from the station, freight elevators move pallets filled with diapers or water bottles.
Donations pour in from all over the country and some Hungarians do not hesitate to travel hundreds of kilometers to drop off sandwiches or medicines.
In this arboreal region, apple growers donated hundreds of crates to refugees.
The vocational college, where a few apprentices have lived up to now, has become a lodging center for families who need to rest.
“The majority of refugees have ties to relatives in Germany or the Czech Republic.
But for those who have no place to stay, we offer them to stay a few nights, ”continues the mayor who came to lend a hand at the station.
“Permanent anxiety”
War can also be read on faces.
That of Surmi and her friends, all medical students in Kharkiv, testify to the fatigue accumulated over the last six days to reach Hungary.
A grueling journey that has not erased the memory of the fighting that targeted the town where these young Indian women lived: “We took refuge in an anti-bombing shelter when it started, it was terrifying.
An Indian, also a student, was even killed a few days ago in Kharkiv”, says Surmi while waiting for the train which must then take them to Budapest.
Galyna, 32, arrived in Zahony the same day as her, with her two children, nephew and sister-in-law.
On her mobile phone, this resident of Ternopil scrolls through images of the bombings that have disfigured several cities in Ukraine.
“Before we left, the sirens sounded all the time.
We lived in constant anxiety, ”she says.
If this mother today says she is relieved for her children, the concern persists for her relatives back home: “My brother is in the army.
I am anguished for him and for all the soldiers who fight for Ukraine”.
All are hanging on the evolution of the conflict
Subject to martial law since the beginning of the conflict, men aged 18 to 60 are prohibited from leaving the country.
Like Galyna, Katarina, 38, therefore made the trip alone from Kiev, without her husband who is facing Russian troops.
Their two children were the first to go.
They took refuge in Italy with their grandmother.
“The shelling started on the first day of the offensive but it intensified over time.
It was really scary.
I just had time to pack my bag, take my animals and leave, ”she explains.
At his feet, the family dog, Tori, gratifies Néron, Katarina's cat, with a few licks.
“These are my third and fourth children!
“, manages to smile the thirty-something.
Our file on the war in Ukraine
Far from the front, the Ukrainian refugees are all hanging on to the evolution of the conflict.
Cup of coffee in hand, Anastasiia struggles to repress her tears when she talks about her future with Murad, her husband: “We had lots of plans, everyone had plans… And now with the war, everything has disappeared”.
World
War in Ukraine: Nearly 1.37 million people have fled since the start of the invasion
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War in Ukraine
Russia
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Vladimir Poutine
Refugees
Volodymyr Zelensky
Hungary
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