The Ukrainian refugees crossing the border to Poland are especially distraught on Friday due to the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian city of Lviv, which is of special strategic importance and currently home to many internally displaced persons, N1’s Ika Ferrer Gotic reports from the Ukraine-Poland border.

Russia has on Friday morning launched missile strikes near an airport in Lviv, which is some 70 kilometres away from the Polish border.

According to N1’s Ika Ferrer Gotic, there are some 200,000 internally displaced persons in the city now.

Refugees go through Lviv to cross into Poland via the Medyka border crossing, she explained.

But Lviv is also important in terms of arms procurement.

“It is through Lviv that weapons reach the Ukrainian army. Also, if this city, which is close to the Polish border, would again be the target of the Russian invasion, it could have consequences on an international scale,” the N1 reporter stressed.

Among the many refugees who managed to cross this border today is three-year-old Paulina. She is travelling to France with her sister Milena. All they managed to bring with them fits in a few handbags:

Trogodišnja Paulina sa sestrom Milenom, sa ukrajinsko-poljske granice ide prema Francuskoj. Ono što su uspjeli da ponesu iz Ukrajine stalo je u svega nekoliko ručnih torbi. #Ukraine #Poland# @Refugees pic.twitter.com/mbFp4aS5FD

— TV N1 Sarajevo (@N1infoSA) March 18, 2022