They crossed the Ukrainian border into Poland on foot. Mothers carried their youngest children in their arms. Older siblings trudged alongside with grim, dogged determination. It was sub-zero and they were freezing, hungry and utterly exhausted.
Among them was Inna, 56, her daughter Olena, 35, and her granddaughter, Karolina, 8, three generations of women who had fled bombed-out Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine. They had been on the road so long and without sleep, they no longer knew what day it was. Day had merged into night had become day. It took several minutes of discussion among them to work out that they had left home three days ago.
