The Aftermath: UKRAINE WAR


the Polish government. There they finally get out of the elements and are given something to eat and drink. Step inside those tents and you’ll


see them crowded shoulder to shoulder. Many are sleeping on the ground. Others gaze about, their eyes empty, lost. They have no idea what the next


hour will bring, let alone the next day.


Many of them already know their


homes are gone, others will find out later.


There are now nearly four million


of them. Putin’s bombs and artillery have


turned them to rubble. The scope of the human misery unleashed by Russia’s war of choice on its neighbor is difficult to measure or comprehend. By April, 10 mil- lion people had been displaced, with thousands more streaming across the border every day and night. As one refugee mother explained


to me: “You awaken in the morning in fear. You count the days. You live to survive and you’re under constant


fear.” “Why this?” she asked, her eyes


spilling tears. “How can this be?” Most displaced civilians forced out


of their hometowns are still inside Ukraine. Some are in hiding in the countryside, others are hunkering down in bomb shelters hoping and praying they won’t be targeted next. Virtually every supply chain


inside Ukraine has been disrupted or destroyed. Like a massive python ruthlessly squeezing the life out of its victim, the Russian military has systematically shut down civilian supply lines. The obvious objective: starving and bombing the populace into submission. It’s a strategy that has Russian


soldiers wreaking mayhem against civilians. More than 1,000 are known to


have perished in the crossfire, but the real number is certainly much higher. When Ukrainians are finally able


to emerge from their bunkers, they find little or no food. Supermarket shelves are empty,


and people are desperate. Some are foraging, hoping to find an apple, a potato, or a crust of stale bread to help keep their families alive one more day. “We are trying to survive some-


how,” one Ukrainian mother told the Associated Press. “My child is hun- gry. I don’t know what to give him to eat.”


Neighboring nations, mean-


while, are now choked with a flood of humanity. Some towns and cities in Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Moldova have doubled in population virtually overnight. They now con- tain as many refugees as they have residents. Those who fled Putin’s war by


crossing into neighboring countries are now homeless. In my visit in mid- March, I saw families with children sleeping on the floors in subway sta- tions or in shopping malls that had been converted into refugee relief centers.


Adding to the misery, thugs and


child traffickers lurk like sharks around them, preying on the defense-


MAY 2022 | NEWSMAX 9


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