There was a long line of cars to go from Ukraine to Hungary. Hundreds of others came on foot.
They were avoiding empty cash machines, bare supermarket shelves and long waits at petrol stations on the day of fierce fighting in Ukraine after the Russian shock.
“Anyone who can flee is fleeing,” said Kristian Szavla, one of the first refugees to arrive in Hungary on Thursday from Ukraine’s western region of Transcarpathia, where a large Hungarian minority lives.
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“We don’t want to go through what we’re experiencing in the mountains in the east, waking up to sirens and Russians bombing your city,” the 28-year-old told AFP at a petrol station in Zahoni, on the Hungarians. edge of the border.
Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region is cut off from the rest of the country by the Carpathian mountain range, and is home to a patchwork of ethnic groups, with a 130,000-strong Hungarian community.
“On the other hand, there are hours-long queues for petrol, bank ATMs empty, and crowds clearing shop shelves,” said a marketer planning a temporary stay with friends in eastern Hungary. Said professional Sazawala.
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“I have a wife and a young child, and I don’t want her to grow up without a father,” he admitted, adding that he didn’t want to enlist in the military.
Through Thursday the Hungarian police reported long queues of cars entering Hungary at five crossings along the 140-kilometre (85-mile) long (85-mile) border with Ukraine.
According to the Hungarian MTI news agency “at least 400 or 500 people” also crossed the border into Hungary on foot on Thursday.
“The situation in Ukraine is dire, my friends and family are leaving Kiev and other cities for the border,” said Bogdan Khamenitsky, a 33-year-old Ukrainian doctor, driving a suitcase back to Ukraine in the other direction.
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“Today we decided to reduce a trip to a medical conference in Budapest to help Ukraine,” he told AFP, along with two aides who said they hoped to return to Kiev.
‘collateral effect’
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said earlier that his country was prepared for an increase in arrivals after Russia’s invasion.
“We see an increasing number of Ukrainian citizens coming to Hungary and possibly applying for refugee status,” he said in a video message on Thursday.
“We are ready to provide for them, we will be able to respond to this challenge quickly and efficiently.”
A map shown yesterday on Orbán’s Facebook page indicated that Budapest believed some 600,000 refugees from Ukraine could immigrate to Hungary.
In neighboring Romania, police said Thursday that some 5,300 people entered along its 615-kilometre (300-mile) shared border with Ukraine, up from 2,400 the day before.
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According to television images, several hundred, including women with children, crossed the border at Sighetul Marmati.
“Most of them are asking how to get to Poland or the Czech Republic,” said the city’s mayor, Vasil Moldovan.
According to Defense Minister Vasil Dancu, Romania plans to accommodate potential refugees in six or seven areas along the border.
“We are prepared to deal with this collateral effect of an invasion of Ukraine,” he said.