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The announcement over the loudspeaker is nearly drowned out by the hubbub of passengers spilling out of the train from Warsaw, but it’s a message many of them have been waiting to hear: “Dear Ukrainian passengers, welcome to Berlin!”
Just over a week after Russia launched an attack on Ukraine, the trickle of war refugees has turned into a steady flow.
“The situation has changed dramatically,” said Katja Kipping, Berlin’s senator for social affairs.
On Tuesday evening alone, 1,300 refugees arrived by train in Berlin.
Mayor Franziska Giffey expects Berlin, which is only about 100 kilometers from Ukraine’s western neighbor Poland, to take in at least 20,000 Ukrainians in the coming weeks, and his city is frantically preparing emergency housing.
So far, Germany’s interior ministry has officially registered over 5,000 Ukrainian refugees. However, given the lack of border checks between Poland and Germany, the true figure is likely to be higher.
Ukrainian women and children make up the majority of those arriving from Poland at Berlin’s central train station, having left behind husbands, fathers, and sons to join the fight against Russian troops on the advance.
Nathalia Lypka, a German senior lecturer from the eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia who fled with her 21-year-old daughter, is among the newcomers.
‘Scared’
“We met in Lviv,” she told AFP, sitting on a wooden bench set up by volunteers in a corner of Europe’s busiest railway station.
“My child was in Kyiv, it was terrible, she was afraid and had to take shelter in the metro station” to avoid being shelled, she says.
“My son and husband decided to stay… My husband had previously served in the army and was called back to duty “She continues.
Lypka and her daughter intend to take the next train to Stuttgart, where friends have offered to house them.
“We appreciate Europe’s support,” she adds.
Tickets are completely free.
Although the influx from Ukraine pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of Syrians and Iraqis who fled their conflict-torn countries for Germany in 2015-2016, the scenes of refugees being greeted by volunteer welcome committees are strikingly similar.
