(11 Mar 2022) The war in Ukraine has already forced 2.5 million people to flee, according to the International Organization for Migration on Friday.
At the Romanian border crossing of Siret, tens of thousands of refugees continue to arrive.
Although the majority are women and children, there are also some men coming through.
One of them was 28-year-old Aleksander Karpenko, who came with his wife, their four children and his mother-in-law.
Fathers of three or more underage children are exempt from fighting for Ukraine allowing Karpenko to get out of the country. The day after they left Dnipro, Russian airstrikes hit the city for the first time.
Karpenko said that although they left before the strike, the feeling of insecurity was already high with the sound of sirens ringing loudly several times a day and a nightly curfew. Local stores were also running out of products, he said.
The war is doubly personal for Karpenko who is half-Russian and half-Ukrainian.
"My mother is Russian. My father is Ukrainian and I have relatives and friends in Russia," he explained. "This conflict hurts a lot."
Karpenko was taking shelter at hotel ballroom in Suceava, 40 minutes from the border crossing with his family.
The hotel opened its doors to refugees as soon as the war began and has so far offered shelter to some 4,000 refugees who stop for a night or two to rest before continuing on their journey.
Hundreds of volunteers have come to help, many are refugees themselves.
Nataly Masechko fled Ivano-Frankivsk the day after the war began. But instead of joining her boyfriend in France, Masechko decided to stay to help her compatriots.
"I decided that I can help here with anything I can," she said, whether it be translating, driving or psychological support.
Among the many families staying there was Viktor Kharchenko's after they left Kharkiv, which as Ukraine's second-largest city has been a key target for Russian forces.
The 18-year-old university student fled with his three-year-old dog Archie, his mother, brother and wounded uncle.
Kharchenko was also exempt from fighting in the war due to a health condition, but it wasn't easy to prove it.
"They wanted to keep me in the Ukraine because I am 18 years old so I can serve the country and go, go fight the jets and bombs with I don't know what, with a machine gun, I think, or pistols or throw rocks at them," he explained.
His family was reluctant to leave at first, thinking that leaders would come to their senses and reach an agreement to stop the war.
But that didn't happen and the last nine days living in Kharkiv were "hell", Kharchenko said.
"I was reading a book in the kitchen, my windows turned red and then I heard the sound. It was, I don't know how to describe it. It was very loud," he said. "I don't think you can compare it to something else."
"Then our house, it was like a wave. Vibrations were so powerful that the windows shattered in our house," he continued.
Before the war, Kharchenko dreamt of becoming a veterinarian. Now, he just hopes for a warm place to stay and food for his family and their dog.
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