While many people are running away from the war environment, a group of women have decided to go back and help people in trouble.
Since Russia’s invasion, over 3 million people have fled from Ukraine, moving to safer climes.
Despite this, a growing number of people are heading in the opposite direction.
In the beginning, the people who were returning to the war front were Ukrainian men and expatriates, but in recent times, more women have also been returning to both defend and help.
These women have been brave enough to return to the war front; despite the bombs, loss of lives and destruction of properties. Their plan is to contribute to the defence of Ukraine in whatever little ways that they can.
The category of women includes people who were working and living abroad and others who had chosen to stay back right from the onset of the war.
Many of them were businesswomen, health workers and professionals in their own capacity.
Boarding a train from Przemysl, Poland, to Lviv in western Ukraine, 50-year-old Iryna Orel told ABC News, “I will go back and help. I am a health worker, so the hospitals need help and I will stay until the end.”
Orel admitted that she was at first frightened by the air raid sirens and sounds of explosives, but “sitting and shaking with fear does not help.”
But she continued by insisting that although she could only contribute in her own way by assisting with healthcare, there are other women who can fight and will not back out.
She said, “Women can fight, many women are patriotic to defend Ukraine. Why not?”
Per ABC News, Maria Khalica, who lives in Italy and was headed to the Ukrainian capital, said, “I am returning to Ukraine to help people evacuate, I am in a more stable state now than my friends, who are under rocket attacks and bombs. I know that Kyiv is also going to be occupied and we are taking the last chance to help other people.”
Since the break out of the war in February, the Russian invasion has caused a lot of disruption in the way of living to the people of Ukraine.
56-year-old Olga Simanova, who travelled from Germany to Vinnycja, said, “We plan to return to the family and we will decide with the family what to do next.”
Despite the threats of rape, death, injury and more that they face with their decision to return to Ukraine, these women are adamant.
The majority of people who are fleeing from Ukraine are women, children and the elderly- seeing as the government ordered the men to stay and fight.
It goes to show that these women had the choice to leave but decided to stay.
The image of a mortally wounded pregnant woman being rushed on a stretcher from a maternity hospital in Mariupol is only one of many dangers that can be observed from the war front.
Since the war, the number of people fleeing to neighbouring countries keep increasing.
According to the latest UNHCR tally: Romania has taken in more than 450,000, Moldova has more than 337,000, Hungary has over 263,000, the Polish capital of Warsaw, alone has 300,000 refugees, and Slovakia some 213,000.
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Rachael Obadiaru is a writer who specializes in content writing, copywriting, blogging, and fictional storytelling. She is a feminist and an advocate for the inclusion of marginalized groups. She spends her free time creating a nuisance on Twitter while snacking on pringles and snuggling with her cats.
