ONE moment she was planning a run in the park with a friend, the next she was running for her life.
As the war raged around her, biologist Monica Koculak was forced to flee her home in Ukraine and return to her native Poland.
She now volunteers for the Red Cross there, caring for some of the 875,000 refugees making desperate journeys out of the line of fire.
More than 450,000 have crossed the border into Poland — with 50,000 more arriving every day.
The rest have sought sanctuary in countries including Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia and Romania.
The UN predicts the number could top FOUR MILLION by July.
Monica, 34, tells me drily: “I realised I would be running, but not in the park.
“My friend arrived and helped me pack. I stood in front of my wardrobe and wondered if I should take my winter clothes or my summer clothes or both. Would I be home by the summer?
“I even thought about taking my skis with me. I was skiing every weekend in Ukraine.
“I’d planned to go to Italy in March and wondered if I’d still need to take them with me.
“It was ridiculous to think of taking skis when fleeing a war. But I wasn’t thinking logically because I had never needed to escape war before.”
Monica’s real career is on hold for now. Her flat in Lviv is abandoned and the plants she lovingly cared for are dying.
Read our Russia – Ukraine live blog for the very latest updates
Home is a school gymnasium in the Polish border town of Medyka, where she is caring for refugees who have been displaced.
It is people like these that The Sun’s Ukraine fundraiser for the Red Cross is helping.
There are 243 people inside Monica’s centre, curled up on camp beds and desperately trying to get some sleep before the next leg of their torturous journey.
Half of them are children, from tiny babies to teenagers. There is a mixture of nationalities.
A children’s corner has been set up, with cartoons playing on a TV. They play with donated toys.
Police guard the school gates as more and more refugees turn up.
One is talking to an officer, begging for a bed. The officer asks him if he wants one or two nights.
Suitcase in one hand and a mobile in the other, the refugee nervously holds two fingers in the air.
A girl no older than ten walks out of the gymnasium, which has the Olympic symbol on the outside. She is smart and even has a handbag slung over her shoulder.
As she approaches the gates she is met by relatives there to take her on to safety.
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A spokesman for the UN’s refugee agency said: “Less than one week has elapsed since the military offensive began and the humanitarian needs of refugees are still evolving.
“We have seen tremendous solidarity and hospitality from the countries receiving refugees. In Poland, field staff report miles of queues on the Ukrainian side. Those who crossed said that they had been waiting up to 60 hours.
Monica, wearing her Red Cross jacket, is approached repeatedly for help. She is now on the front line of a humanitarian crisis.
The graduate of Krakow University says: “It makes me so angry. I’m representing the Polish Red Cross now so I have to be calm and offer reassurance when I speak to people.
“Every now and then I’m falling apart and crying in the corner.
“It was hard for people to leave Kyiv and Lviv. They got the train, a bus, car and some of them even walked up to 40km (25 miles) on foot. Their arms, legs and feet are frozen and they’re tired from walking. They reach Medyka then have to wait 24-48 hours to cross over into Poland.
“Some of the women were heavily pregnant, with small kids. A lot of them just dumped their luggage. They couldn’t carry it any further.”
Their new life is hard. There are no toilets and food is scarce. The Red Cross’s help is vital. Monica explains: “The Red Cross is trying to get food and supplies to them.
“They are traumatised. They left everything behind — some even fled with only the clothes on their back.
“Everybody understands that this is the way it has to be.
The Ukraine Crisis Appeal will support people in areas currently affected and those potentially affected in the future by the crisis.
In the unlikely event that the British Red Cross raise more money than can be reasonably and efficiently spent, any surplus funds will be used to help them prepare for and respond to other humanitarian disasters anywhere in the world.
For more information visit https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/disaster-fund
“For now I am here to help people. I am a refugee just like them. I will return to my flat one day — and my skis.”
Four hours south on the Slovakian border, more traumatised and exhausted refugees arrive at the choke point border between Uzhhorod in Ukraine and Vysne Nemecke on the other side.
Here, one of the first sights to greet them is a Red Cross tent dispensing warm drinks, sandwiches, medical care and kind words.
Inside, mum Nastya Pohorelova, 27, is enjoying a tea while two-year-old daughter Sasha chews a lolly.
They fled Mykolayiv, in southern Ukraine, which has witnessed fierce fighting, after cowering in a cellar while explosions rocked the city.
Nastya told The Sun: “We were so scared. I was desperate to get Sasha to safety.”
Her husband Evgeni, 27, an IT worker, had to remain in Ukraine, like all men aged 18-60, to fight.
Nastya, an ex-child care worker, is now planning her onward journey to Poland, where she will stay with friends.
Responding to the donations flooding in for the Red Cross, she said: “I’m extremely grateful to everyone who has donated. It’s nice to think people are thinking of us.”
In koala bear woolly hat, teary one-year-old Daniel sobbed in his mother’s arms as the pair cross the border into Slovakia.
Queuing for a bus in the icy wind, mum Enna Bairamukova, 31, from capital Kyiv, said: “I don’t know where we will go — maybe France. We had to leave, the bombing was so bad.”
Slovakian Red Cross volunteer Marcela Vincova, 50, added: “Many people we help have walked miles.
“Although some hold it back, they are clearly traumatised after leaving a war zone. We help with basic medical care and offer the mothers and children somewhere warm to plan their onward journeys.”
She explained that more donations are vital, with possibly millions fleeing as the fighting intensifies.
Accountant and HR worker Sophia Tarasova, 30, had just arrived from Kyiv and was greeted by the Red Cross volunteers with a warm brew.
She revealed: “I feel super lost. I’ve been forced to leave my country and I don’t know what to do. I’ve brought one pair of shoes, some cosmetics, a laptop and not much else.”
She told how she escaped from Kyiv by foot before getting a train, then added: “We had to cross rivers where the bridges were bombed out and could hear shots ringing out. It took three hours to reach the train station.
“I’ve left my parents behind in Kyiv. They’re in their 70s and didn’t want to leave the country. I’m very worried about them.”
Many arrived at the border with their pets, their passport and little else.
As Nadia Yamchik crossed with pet dog Lucy, the 59-year-old from Vinnytsia, central Ukraine, broke down in a flood of tears.
She said: “I’m frightened. I want to go to Vienna but I don’t know how I’m going to get there.”
A mother and daughter arrived later with their five cats, who they said they would never leave behind.
Daughter Kate Leonidivna, 33, from Kyiv, said: “There were bombs everywhere. It was very dangerous.
“We left with just our documents and our cats. The cats were scared too.”
