Disabled orphans fleeing Kyiv received by Poles, Hungarians

ZAHONY, Hungary (AP) — Some of Ukraine’s most vulnerable citizens have reached safety in Poland through an effort of solidarity and compassion that transcended borders and raised a powerful counterpoint to war.

On Wednesday, a train pulled into the station in Zahony, Hungary carrying about 200 people with severe physical and mental disabilities — residents of two orphanages for the disabled in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv that were evacuated as Russian forces battered the city.

“Territorially, the orphanages are where the rockets flew, where there were bursts of rifle fire. A metro station near the orphanage was blown up,” said Larissa Leonidovna, the director of the Svyatoshinksy orphanage for boys in Kyiv. “We spent more than an hour underground during a bombing.”

The disabled refugees, most of them children, disembarked the train into the cold wind of the platform and into the arms of dozens of Poles and Hungarians waiting to receive them. From there, they were escorted to four waiting buses, sent from Poland by the Catholic relief organization Caritas.

With the help of the deputy mayor of Kyiv along with the city’s child protection office, Caritas organized the evacuation from the capital as a Russian assault intensified.

Overnight, Associated Press reporters in Kyiv heard at least one explosion before videos started circulating of apparent strikes on the city. The targets weren’t immediately clear.