In the last two weeks, Brazilian Jorge Santos, 45, who lives in Krakow, crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border twice to rescue people who needed a ride to escape the war. One scene can’t get out of her head: the drama of family farewells at the Lviv train station, with women and children boarding the trains, while husbands, fathers and brothers stand on the platforms.
“That hit me a lot. The small children not wanting to be separated from their parents, those goodbyes, those scenes moved me a lot”, he says.
The Ukrainian exodus, considered the fastest in Europe in at least three decades, reached 1.7 million refugees this Monday (7), according to data from the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees).
With men between the ages of 18 and 60 being banned from leaving the country to make themselves available for combat, a good part of that contingent is made up of women and children — who already number half a million, said US Ambassador to the UN Linda-Thomas Greenfield. .
The United Nations and other organizations have not yet released demographic data to determine the proportion of women among Ukrainian refugees. But the testimony of those who are day-to-day at borders and in reception centers is unanimous: the flow of women is much greater.
It is a “refugee crisis”, as defined by a Brazilian who lived in Ukraine and left for Poland nine days ago, in an interview with sheet. Volunteer Jorge Santos confirms. “There are many more women in the queue. Many children too, many elderly people and some foreign men”, he says.
They have been given priority on evacuation trains and reception centers set up in neighboring countries.
Data from before the current Russian invasion show that since the annexation of Crimea by Vladimir Putin’s government in 2014, women have made up two-thirds of the internally displaced in Ukraine – that is, the people who have had to leave their homes and move elsewhere. regions within the country.
This Monday (7), the International Rescue Committee (IRC) released a report in which it expresses “extreme concern for the safety of women and children who have been forced to leave their homes” in Ukraine, especially those traveling alone.
“In situations of conflict and displacement, women and girls face particular and disproportionate risks – including exploitation, violence and abuse. Ukraine’s women and girls are no different,” the report says.
“As in any similar situation, women can be victims of sexual violence, and in many cases they take children with them, who are also very vulnerable”, she tells the sheet Milan Votypka, media coordinator for the Czech humanitarian organization People in Need, which is working with refugees from the Ukrainian crisis.
According to him, the programs for sheltering the war focus on these vulnerable groups.
UNHCR spokesperson in Brazil, Luiz Fernando Godinho, reports that the work of welcoming and preventing abuse is also directed at humanitarian workers who deal with these refugees. “It’s something that cannot be tolerated. In a situation like this, you have to take a very specific look at protection and prevention against gender-based violence, including sexual exploitation.”
In the midst of this context, last Friday (4) came to light audios sent to friends by Brazilian state deputy Arthur do Val (Podemos-SP), known as Mamãe Falei. He, who visited Ukraine last week, says in the messages that Ukrainian women are “easy” because they are poor – and that the line of refugees from the war has more beautiful women than the “best club in Brazil”.
At least 11 requests for cassation have already been filed against the politician in the Council of Ethics and Parliamentary Decorum of the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo because of the episode.
Trafficking in women and unsafe births
According to British media, there are already warnings about the trafficking of women and children on Ukraine’s borders. A spokeswoman for international organization Care told The Telegraph newspaper that gangs based in neighboring countries are “ready to take advantage of the crisis” in Ukraine to smuggle people across Europe. According to her, the entity predicts a “disturbing increase” in cases in the coming months.
Another report, in the Daily Mail, claims that Polish police have asked aid workers at the border to check the identities of those who offer lifts to refugees, as criminals in sex trafficking networks often disguise themselves as Good Samaritans, with promises transport and accommodation free of charge.
The Ukrainian government also denounced the alleged use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, very common in conflicts, by the Russian military.
“When bombs fall on their cities, when soldiers rape women in occupied cities – and we have many cases, unfortunately, when Russian soldiers rape women in Ukrainian cities – it is difficult, of course, to talk about the effectiveness of international law,” he said. of Foreign Affairs, Dmitro Kuleba, at an event Friday at Chatham House in London.
The chancellor did not provide any evidence for the claim, and news agencies such as Reuters were unable to independently verify the claim.
The health of pregnant women is also a concern in the Ukrainian conflict. An estimated 80,000 women are due to give birth in the next three months in the country – many of them will not have access to medical care. “For some, childbirth will be life-threatening rather than a transformative experience,” says a report by UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund).
Photographs of babies born on the Kiev subway, used as a bomb shelter in recent days, have gone viral on the internet.
On the 3rd, the private maternity hospital Adonis was attacked on the outskirts of Kiev. The patients and their babies, who had been hiding in the basement of the clinic for two days, were taken to another location by bus when it became known that Russian tanks were approaching. Everyone ended up saved.
