A mother and her children rest in a temporary shelter inside a building of the railway station after arriving on a train from Kyiv in Ukraine to Przemysl, Poland, February 24, 2022. /CFP
The UN refugee agency said around 100,000 people had fled their homes within Ukraine and several thousand more had left the country since neighboring Russia launched a "special military operation" early Thursday.
"We believe that some 100,000 people must have already left their homes and may be displaced inside the country, and several thousand have crossed international borders," said Shabia Mantoo, spokeswoman of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Filippo Grandi, the UNHCR high commissioner, had voiced serious concern at the rapid deterioration of the situation as military operations unfolded across Ukraine and urged neighboring countries to keep their borders open for those seeking safety and shelter.
"We are continuing to closely follow the situation and are reinforcing our operations in Ukraine and neighboring countries," the agency said.
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Passengers arrive at a bus station in Medyka, Przemysl, Poland, after crossing a border from Ukraine, February 25, 2022. /CFP
Hundreds of Ukrainians fleeing the conflict started arriving in neighboring central European countries on Thursday and the region braced for many more, setting up reception points and sending troops towards the borders to provide assistance.
At the usually quiet border crossing at Medyka in southern Poland, dozens arrived from Ukraine on foot on Thursday morning, carrying luggage. A line of cars waiting for passage grew longer during the course of the day.
A Polish woman, Olena Bogucka, 39, said she had been waiting for four hours while her Ukrainian husband and child were stuck on the other side.
"You can't get through," she said. "I can't reach them on the phone. I don't know how to get my child out. I don't know what to do."
To facilitate border crossings, Poland lifted quarantine rules on Thursday for people arriving from outside the EU without a lab-certified negative COVID-19 test.
(With input from agencies)