'Wherever There Is An Open Door': Ukrainians Flee In Terror, Pour Into Moldova, Poland

With missiles raining down on major Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv, thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing the country to neighboring Slovakia, Poland and Moldova.

According to the United Nations refugee agency, an estimated 100,000 people have fled their homes and are uprooted after Russia's invasion, CBC News reported.

Footages doing rounds on social media show lines of cars moving out of cities and heading west. There is also a huge number of people who are walking in across the borders to neighboring Moldova and Slovakia, where preparations are on to accept the huge influx of people.

A video by Radio Free Europe shows people gathered at the railway station in Kostyantynivka, in eastern Ukraine, hoping to catch a train to safety. A woman, who made a "spontaneous" decision to leave the city, said she decided to flee once she heard the war had started.

"I am from the frontline town Toresk. So, I have been through these horrors before. So, I grabbed what I could quickly. Some clothes, some food. I left behind some meat I was frying in a pan," said the woman, whose identity is unknown.

She breaks down to add that she is now heading to relatives in Kyiv and "then I don't know." To the reporter's question whether she knows it is not safe there, the woman says she is aware of the "horrible mess." "People say Poland will take refugees. We just need to get there," she said.

Another man, who too was fleeing his town, told the news outlet that he fled when he saw the troops. "When my family came and said there were tanks in Bakhmut, even though they are Ukrainian tanks, I immediately decided to get ready because I knew there will be problems. We'll go wherever there is an open door. If there is an open door in Kyiv, then Kyiv. If not, then not there. That's our situation," the man added, desperation written all over his face.

Poland too is witnessing dozens of people arriving on foot carrying pieces of luggage. The line of vehicles seems to be growing longer during the course of the day.

Olena Bogucka, a 39-year-old Polish woman, 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. I can't reach them on the phone.... I don't how to get my child out.... I don't know what to do," CBC News quoted her as saying.

The situation is not different in the Luzhanka border crossing with Hungary in western Ukraine. Hundreds of cars waited in a queue extending over two kilometers back from the border Thursday afternoon.

A 19-year-old man from the town of Svyalava said he fled because he was scared of Russian assault and of potentially being called up to the Ukrainian army. "My brother lives in Hungary and I’ll stay with him as long as it takes," he told The Guardian. Many like him are fleeing before receiving army call-ups.