Berliners open their hearts, homes to those fleeing Ukraine
BERLIN (AP) — Emmanuel Oyedele’s dream of getting a business degree in Ukraine lies shattered in the rubble of Russia’s sudden fierce military assault, but right now the 28-year-old Nigerian says he feels blessed.
After hastily escaping Kyiv as Russian forces advanced, Oyedele, his brother and two young female friends spent days trying to flee Ukraine by train and on foot before eventually making it to Berlin, where they were welcomed into a stranger’s home.
“The stress, it’s all gone,” Oyedele said Monday from the lake-side house an hour outside the German capital where the Vollmann family says he and his group can stay until the end of April.
“The only stress I have right now is the sympathy, the sadness in me to see my brothers who are stuck in Kyiv or other regions of Ukraine,” Oyedele told The Associated Press. Aside from the threat of being caught in the fighting, lack of electricity means those left behind are now sleeping in cold apartments, without warm water or any way to cook, he said.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-migration-berlin-e62edf3cf4b59fbf5496d132203c6870