THE HUMAN COST OF WAR

As their beloved nation is pummelled by Russian bombs, families fear they may never see each other again.

- YALDA HAKIM

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered Europe's largest population movement since the Second World War. More than four million people have left the country and a quarter of the population has been displaced. As a journalist, I have reported from many conflict zones, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Libya. But what I find striking about the war in Ukraine is the sheer scale of the number of women and children fleeing the Russian invasion.

For weeks, Ukrainian cities in the north, east, and south of the country have faced constant bombardment from Russian artillery. Many towns, villages, and communities have been flattened. Lives have been lost. Homes destroyed. Livelihoods overturned. Most of those trying to flee the brutalities of this war have been making their way west to the relative safety of Lviv – just 70 kilometers from the Polish border.

It is the city's main railway station which has best captured the human struggle of this conflict and the story of the Ukrainian people. It is a story of pain and sorrow. A place where hundreds of thousands of families are torn apart as mostly women and children frantically try to board the overcrowded trains heading to Poland and beyond, while sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers stand on the platform bidding farewell. Men of fighting age aren't allowed to leave the country. So, they say their goodbyes and head in opposite directions - uncertain of when, or if, they will ever be reunited with their families again.