Volunteers extend help to thousands of refugees from Ukraine

Since Russia launched attacks on Ukraine, 368,000 people have fled the country, according to the UN refugee agency

SIRET, Romania -- Sitting with her teenage daughter in a hotel foyer in northern Romania, 38-year-old Viktoriya Smishchkyk breaks down in tears as she recounts her departure from Ukraine.

“I could hear the sound of the fighting outside, it was very scary,” Smishchkyk, who is from Vinnitsya in central Ukraine, told The Associated Press from a hotel that is offering free accommodation to refugees.

“We left all our belongings behind, but they are material things — less important than the lives of our children,” she said.

Smishchkyk and her daughter are among hundreds of thousands of people who have fled Ukraine since Russian launched its attack on Thursday. The U.N. refugee agency said Sunday about 368,000 people have fled the country, many into bordering nations like Romania, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, and Slovakia.