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‘Hiding in basements’: Thousands of Lebanese trapped in Ukraine
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KYIV, 26 February 2022, (TON): Ali Chreim’s phone has been ringing non-stop.
“Good morning, what’s the situation where you’re at? We slept underground and we heard sounds,” a Lebanese student in Ukraine tells him in a voice message, trying to hold back her tears.
“We’re so exhausted. My body is shaking.”
A Lebanese university professor who has lived in Kyiv for 33 years, Chreim said “thousands of his compatriots trapped in Ukraine are trying to leave, as Russian forces continue to bombard the country.”
He said “we have Lebanese families with two or three-month-old babies who recently emigrated because of the economic crisis.”
“We’re trying to send them food.”
Chreim heads the Lebanese Community in Ukraine, a diaspora group in the country. He said there are some 4,500 Lebanese living in Ukraine, of whom about 1,300 are students. Some are barely 20 years old.
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