'I want to live in Ukraine': Hundreds of Ukrainian orphans forced to flee to Poland amid Russian invasion

One of Poland's largest resorts is now the last resort for over 700 Ukrainian orphans who were forced to flee amid Russia's invasion of the country.

The children, aged three to 18, and employees of the state-run orphanage fled Odessa, Ukraine within an hour’s notice, travelling more than 48 hours on trains and buses to escape the violence being unleashed on civilians by the Russian military.

“A lot of children tell us I don’t to come here, why you take me, I want to live in Ukraine. Oh, bombs? No problem. They don’t understand,” Yulia Nikandrova, manager of the Odessa Children’s Protection Service, told CTV News Chief Anchor and Senior Editor Lisa LaFlamme Wednesday.

LaFlamme, reporting from the resort turned orphanage in Ossa, Poland, watched as the children sorted through boxes of donated clothing that arrived by the truckload. Tonight, they’ll sleep in a conference room and eat in a swanky resort restaurant, all run by volunteers.

“Food, shoes, dolls, clothes, shampoo,” Nikandrova exclaimed, listing the generous donations given to the children.

But what they really need, she says, are child psychologists.

“We need hands… people… because these children, if you see they take, take, take, take, take,” she said, gesturing as though the children were frantically scooping things up. “Because they think that tomorrow is absent.”

For these children, tomorrow doesn’t feel promised.

“We want to come back home,” Nikandrova said. “We love our country and we want to come back and we must come back because this is the children Ukrainian children.”