Many of the refugees who have left Ukraine are convinced that they will be home within a couple of weeks, an Irish journalist has claimed. 

Niall O'Connor from the Journal.ie is reporting from the Polish-Ukrainian border and says he has encountered numerous people who think they will soon be able to return:  

“The refugees, the vast majority of them, believe they’ll be going home in a week or two. That this will all be over in a few or too,” Mr O’Connor told On The Record with Gavan Reilly. 

“But all the humanitarians are saying otherwise and that is very difficult for these people to deal with. 

“The other day, I was trying to help a woman with two Irish humanitarians who were here with Hendrick Haulage. They were trying to fix her van to get her going again, she’d just come across the border and she was utterly convinced she would be going back to Kyiv. 

“But of course that’s not going to happen.” 

Listen and subscribe to On The Record with Gavan Reilly on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.

The UN estimates that over 2.5 million Ukrainians have left their homeland since the conflict began and Mr O’Connor that those he has encountered have a steely spirit: 

“The one take away based on what I’ve seen here - and I’m sure other reporters will tell you the same - these people have an absolute resoluteness to them,” he said. 

“The kids are with them. It’s all women and children - about 95%, maybe even as high as 98% of the refugees are women and children. There’s just the odd elderly grandfather coming with them. 

“But there is a resoluteness to them. A determination to them. They look very focused on keeping moving and getting as far away as they can from Ukraine.”

2HWW6HP Kyiv, Ukraine. 7th Mar, 2022. A child is seen sitting in an evacuation bus in Kyiv. Since the beginning of the Russian military invasion, more than 1.7 million refugees have left Ukraine. This is reported by the UN refugee agency. (Credit Image: © Sergei Chuzavkov/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire)

5,500 have come to Ireland

Earlier today An Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that 5,500 Ukrainians have arrived in Ireland since Russia invaded last month:  

“Our primary impulse is to assist those who are fleeing war,” he told the BBC. 

“The Irish people are very seized by the series of atrocities that are going on; what we’re witnessing on our screens every evening is really shocking to people.”

Main image: Ukrainians walk from Ukraine to Isaccea in Romania after crossing the border on March 5th 2022. Picture by: Liviu Pazargic / Alamy Stock Photo