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Patrick Hill in Korczowa, Poland

Inside 'disaster movie' hell on Polish border as 1,000 refugees sleep in shopping centre

It now resembles scenes from a disaster movie, with more than 1,000 refugees sleeping side-by-side while Polish soldiers keep watch over them, but until last week it was a shopping centre.

Food, clothes and water, most of which has been donated by well-wishers, are stacked up inside the glass-fronted outlets usually occupied by a range of top shops, including fashion store Zara.

And there are camp beds covered in chocolate brown and beige blankets in every conceivable space.

The shopping outlet is one of 26 buildings which have now been converted into refugee reception centres by the Polish government since Russian leader Vladimir Putin waged war on Ukraine last Thursday.

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An assistance point for Ukrainian refugees near the Shopping Mall in Przemysl, southeastern Poland (Darek Delmanowicz/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

In the six days since, more than half a million have fled the war-torn country, including nearly 400,000 into Poland.

And officials here estimate there are already 250,000 more waiting in massive queues to get through as the conflict escalates and the refugee crisis deepens.

Among those waiting there today was mum-of-two Ganna Solomko, her 18-year-old daughter Ruslana and their toy poodle dog Linda, nine.

Ganna, who works in the oil industry, fled her home in Odessa on Tuesday two days before the war started, leaving her son Alexii, 27, and her husband behind in order to travel to Lviv to be with Ruslana, who has been studying there for the last six months.

Mum Anastacia holding her baby daughter while her son stands next to her (©Stan Kujawa)
Rusanna with her poodle Linda (©Stan Kujawa)

She said: "Since arriving here in Poland there have been people to help us at every turn.

"The attitude towards us has been so amazing I could cry. They are so warm and we are so thankful.

"I feel like the world is with us."

Refugees at a pop up distribution hub in a shopping centre (©Stan Kujawa)

She added: "I feel physically safe here, but not mentally because I am so worried for my husband and son back in Odessa.

"Young men on both sides are dying and for what?

"This is a war against people. This shouldn't be happening in Europe in the 21st Century."

Fellow mum-of-two Anastacia, 28, from Kyiv, rocked her two-month-old daughter Eve in her arms and watched over her five-year-old son Mykola while telling how she had been surprised by how much support Ukrainians are being given.

Refugees arriving and disembarking from coaches (©Stan Kujawa)

She added she was impressed at being given access to a special baby and children area inside the adapted shopping centre, which although she described as "not very clean", she said it was at least warm.

Anastacia, an English teacher, said: "My husband works as an engineer and has been offered jobs abroad before, but we are patriots and love our country, so would never have left except for war.

"I hope we will be able to go home, but I don't believe it will be soon.

"I am preparing myself mentally that this could last a year and only when I am 100 per cent sure it is safe for my children can I go back."

Matthew Oulton arrived with supplies of food and nappies for refugees (©Stan Kujawa)

Among those I met helping the rescue effort at the shopping centre today was a British IT worker, who had just arrived after making a desperate 26-hour mercy dash.

Matthew Oulton, 54, clubbed together with family and friends to buy more than £1,000 in emergency supplies, including nappies, baby milk formula and tubs of sweets, from a cash-and-carry in Landshut, Bavaria.

He then booked time off work and completely filled his silver 4x4 up with them before beginning his mission.

He said: "I saw all these kids coming across the border on the TV and it had a real effect on me.

"One of them was a baby that didn't even have a nappy. I watched it and thought 'no, this isn't right! I can't sit here and just watch this happen'."

Newly arrived refugees at the Hala Kijowska shopping centre car park (©Stan Kujawa)

Matthew, who is originally from Manchester, added: "Lots of people were very generous, giving me money to buy the supplies.

"And my son is a chef so has a cash and carry card, so we went there and bought as much as we could fit in the car.

"I set off at 10am on Monday and drove and drove and drove.

"I just felt like I needed to do something to help."

Poland has been welcoming refugees from Ukraine (©Stan Kujawa)

Anger appears to be growing from the refugees towards Vladimir Putin and was on public display on a fence in the car park which read "F*** Russia ".

A volunteer inside told me: "There is a lot of sadness here, but the amount of support we're getting is incredible.

"It has been non-stop and has come from people of many different nationalities.

"It's amazing. Things are very bad in Ukraine, but the kindness here proves that good always shines through in the end, no matter what."

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