© RIA Novosti/Valeriy Melnikov
A CNN journalist has visited a Ukrainian refugee camp. He noted that the people were so frightened by what the Ukrainian army has done that they never intend to return to their homeland. Refugees are convinced: the Kiev authorities are to blame for all their sufferings.
Ukrainian refugees' fear of their homeland is so great that many have decided to become Russian citizens, according to the CNN news item.
The American TV channel's correspondent, Phil Black, visited a temporary accommodation camp and learned from Ukrainians why they left their homeland and why they believed there will be no return for them. Refugees told him they did not intend to go back, because they no longer saw a future, either for themselves or their children, in Ukraine.
According to official data, since Kiev's military operation began to gain momentum, government troops began to take back large areas from the Lugansk and Donetsk militia. This had a profound effect on the number of refugees crossing the border from Ukraine into Russia.
The journalist talked to newly arrived refugees. Elena, her daughter Anna and their dog were among them. Elena said that they had fled from battles, explosions, airplanes and tanks that frightened her daughter. She plans to stay in the refugee camp for a few days. Conditions there are simple, the reporter notes, but people are grateful even for that. They say it is quiet and safe for their children.
A temporary accommodation point is where they can think over the dramatic events that have changed their lives forever. Everybody there blames the Ukrainian government. One refugee showed a shell fragment, which was, according to her, fired by the Ukrainian military and which she found in her yard. Women cried while expressing the belief that Ukrainian authorities simply don't value their lives at all.
"What for? Why do we suffer?" one of them wonders.
The correspondent met people who were leaving the camp. Their fear of their own homeland is so great that they decided to accept refuge and offers of work in a remote Arctic region, the journalist notes. "I will probably never return to Ukraine, because my children have no future there. They've broken our lives," refugee Natalia said.
According to official data,
nearly half a million Ukrainians have found refuge in Russia, the journalist concludes.
Probably not.