MINNEAPOLIS — Even those on the frontlines of the humanitarian crisis on the Ukraine/Poland border have a hard time describing what's unfolding on a daily basis.
"It's unfathomable," said Alexandra Sakurets, who was born in Ukraine but has worked at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital in Minneapolis for 24 years.
On Saturday, Sakurets left the comfort of her home in Minnesota to join a Global Disasters Relief Team in Poland. She has spent every waking hour since working with a medical team inside a refugee reception center just across the Ukranian border.
"It's a shopping mall, the size of our Ridgedale Mall," Sakurets said. "The entire mall has been converted into a housing facility for refugees. People are bringing mattresses, strollers, blankets and sleeping bags. When (the refugees) are leaving with an infant, they just carry the infant."
Sakurets says many of the people she is seeing are in need of medical attention.
"Most of them are coming in sick," she said. "Their coughs are the worst kind of coughs you ever want to hear. We're seeing injuries from cold exposure and frostbite, too. They're having to stand outside with children for 10 hours to get to the border crossing."
In nearby Warsaw, Dorota Serafin, Executive Director of Polish Humanitarian Action and a former graduate of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, is helping coordinate humanitarian convoys that are still traveling into Kyiv, at least for now.
The population of Ukraine is 44 million, and she says the vast majority of people remain in the country but might be displaced due to the war.
"It's an unprecedented event," Serafin said. "We are sending food kits for adults, infants and older children and also hygiene kits."
But with each passing day, Poland continues to see more and more women and children cross the border looking for shelter, so Polish Humanitarian Action is also expanding support there. Of the 2.5 million refugees so far, Serafin says 1.3 million have entered Poland.
"When you talk to the people at the border, you hear some terrible stories, so the psychological support has become more and more the problem for us to focus on," Serafin said. "Fortunately we do have mental health professionals who can speak the language and provide some help."
But the need is growing by the day, she says they're now expecting at least five million Ukranians to flee in the coming weeks, with 60% hoping to stay in Poland. The main obstacle right now is safe passage.
"People are just terrified to take the route," Serafin said. "And if the humanitarian corridors would be opened, I'm sure the number would grow significantly."
"Exactly," Sakurets said. "This is a big problem because they're bombing major roadways. One of the ladies who came, she said that they got in their cars, made white flags and big signs saying 'children in these cars' and waved the flags as they drove off. She said she had never seen anything like it, she said she saw dead bodies on the roadside.
"I just think that everyone who is negotiating right now, they should come here and they should spend a day here. Then maybe... maybe they'll have a little more compassion for humanity, and not so much hate."
If you'd like to support the Ukranian aid efforts of Polish Humanitarian Action, you can donate here.
If you'd like to support the refugee medical support efforts of Alexandra Sakurets and the Global Disasters Relief Team you can donate here.