There was the hardest goodbye Thursday as tearful Ukrainian father bade farewell to his evacuating daughter after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ruled all men aged 18-60 CANNOT leave the country in case they need to be called up to fight Putin.
The video, which has been liked by thousands, shows the father making a tearful farewell and embracing the little girl.
Being filmed from a safe zone, the man hugs and kisses his daughter and wife before seeing her off as she leaves in a vehicle.
Both are seen clearly sobbing as the father prepares the young girl to leave with her mother, exiting the country for at least the foreseeable future.
Amidst the ongoing invasion, the Ukrainian border agency have banned men between age of 18 and 60 leaving the country.
The agency says the measure is aimed at ‘guaranteeing Ukraine’s defence and the organisation of timely mobilisation’.
A viral video captured a sobbing Ukrainian father bidding farewell to his anguished daughter before she began her trek to flee the war-torn country – while he was forced to stay behind because of a ban that prevents all able-fighting men from leaving the nation.
The video, which has been liked by thousands, shows the father making a tearful farewell and embracing the little girl.
The temporary ban will remain in force for the duration of martial law declared on Thursday morning.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has just signed a decree ordering a general mobilisation. All Ukrainians who can carry arms have been urged to defend their homeland.
The country’s conscripts and reservists are also being called up, according to the decree, which is to be in effect for 90 days.
Legendary boxers and brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko are among those who have vowed to fight for Ukraine amidst the ongoing Russian invasion.
Mothers and young children have been waving farewell to their loved ones they are forced to leave behind as 100,000 people flee Ukraine amid the chaos caused by Russia’s invasion.
Ukrainian heavyweight boxing world champion Vladimir Klitschko joins the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces during the opening of the first Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces. The boxers are among the adult men who will stay and fight.
The UN Refugee Agency said 100,000 people have so far been forced to flee their homes with thousands leaving the country.
UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said: ‘We believe that some 100,000 people must have already left their homes and may be displaced inside the country, and several thousand have crossed international borders.’
Heart-rending pictures show women holding their babies and kissing their partners goodbye before boarding a bus out of Kiev on Thursday.
One father, 28-year-old Vlad, could be seen handing his two-year-old son to mother Tatiana, 26, as she departed the capital city that has been hit by airstrikes and swarmed by enemy forces.
The images come as terrified Ukrainians are left scrambling for fuel, queuing for hours outside cash machines and piling into trains and cars in an attempt to flee.
Petrol stations started rationing the amount each driver could buy while huge lines formed outside ATMs across the country despite bombs dropping.
Meanwhile, Uber’s service was down across the nine cities it operated in but Bolt and Uklon services remained live to taxi people away from the war.
Citizens started panic buying earlier on Thursday as banks, shops and gas stations started to empty when locals learned of the overnight invasion.
Traffic was gridlocked on the main roads out of the capital despite calls for people to stay at home – with some bursting into tears as they made it to safety over the border with Poland.
But the city centres were ghost towns as martial law was imposed, apart from some cars whizzing past on their way out and tanks, military figures and some citizens who have taken up arms.
Russian troops swept into Ukraine in early morning raids on Thursday as President Vladimir Putin gave the green light for his forces to launch a ‘special military operation’.
He warned other countries any attempt to interfere would lead to ‘consequences you have never seen’ but was met with international condemnation, sanctions and was compared to Adolf Hitler by some.
Vlad, a 28-year-old father hands his son Danya, two, to his mother Tatiana, 26, as they say goodbye before she leaves Kiev, at a bus station, Ukraine, on Thursday.
A couple kiss goodbye before the woman boards a bus out of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday. The images come as terrified Ukrainians are left scrambling for fuel, queuing for hours outside cash machines and piling into trains and cars to flee.
A woman holds her baby inside a bus as they leave Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday amid the chaos caused by Russia’s invasion.
A woman holds her baby as she gets on a bus leaving Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday. Traffic was gridlocked on the main roads out of the capital despite calls for people to stay at home.
Locals queue at an ATM in Lviv, Ukraine, as they desperately empty their accounts as the Rusisan invasion kicked off this morning.
Desperate Ukrainians stand outside a local shop as they try to buy groceries as the crisis bites the country. Pictured: Kiev
Across the 332-mile long Polish frontier, Warsaw has said it will open nine reception centres to welcome civilians fleeing the Russian advance.
Poland’s interior minister Mariusz Kaminski said: ‘There will certainly be a wave of refugees arriving in our country.’
He added that Poland would take in ‘as many as there will be at our borders’.
The centres would offer arrival meals and medical care, and a place to rest and receive information.
The head of the Polish border guard, Tomasz Praga, said Thursday there had been an ‘increase’ in the number of people seeking to cross the Poland-Ukraine border in both directions, but added the situation was stable.
Around 29,000 people had crossed the border in both directions over the past 24 hours, including 15,000 coming to Poland, Praga said earlier Thursday.
Groups of refugees have been crossing the frontier between Ukraine and Poland following Russian invasion.
Poland is establishing nine centres for refugees along its 332-mile frontier with Ukraine as civilians flee westward.
These people are walking across the Dorohusk border crossing into Poland just hours after the Russian invasion began.
At the Dorohusk border crossing in eastern Poland, AFP journalists saw cars with Ukrainian flags on their dashboards entering the EU country.
One woman with a young child in the passenger seat drove by with one hand on the steering wheel and the other wiping away tears from her face.
Next to a small shop, people with plastic bags stood waiting for transport back to Ukraine, saying they wanted to return to support their families.
The UN warned Thursday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would have ‘devastating’ humanitarian consequences and urged neighbouring countries to keep borders open to those fleeing the violence.
Filippo Grandi, head of the UN’s refugee agency said: ‘We are gravely concerned about the fast-deteriorating situation and ongoing military action in Ukraine.’
