Przemysl, Polonia (CNN) –– There is only one train line that runs between Ukraine and the border town of Przemysl in Poland. The wagons coming and going are painted a faded blue and yellow, the national colors of the besieged country.
The scenes on platform 5 were different this week. thousands of refugees they keep coming on the trains from Ukraine. They are mostly women and children seeking safety from war while Russian forces intensify their attacks.
But, the people waiting for the trip back across the border were no longer almost all men. This line was perhaps half full of women waiting to return to the war zone.
Mariia Halligan told CNN that she is headed to Kyiv, her hometown, to be with her family and her Canadian husband to fight, in her words, “Russian terrorists.”
“If I have to do this, I will do it for my country, for my relatives, for my friends,” he said. And she added that there was no room to get nervous.
Mariia Halligan holds a paper heart made for her by Polish children, as she prepares to return to Ukraine.
“I am not [un] man, I can’t kill. I am a woman and my work [es] balance and help, be kind. And worry about relatives, family, friends and all of Ukraine. But now I feel that all Ukrainians [son] my relatives. And I hope that the world society will help Ukrainians, all Ukrainians, because they are my family,” he noted.
Halligan was clutching a paper heart in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag, made for her by Polish children who hoped it would be a good luck charm.
Each woman waiting for the train on this cold and cloudy day had her own reasons for returning to her country at war. But there was something that seemed to connect almost all of them. They see her return to Ukraine, to a country at war, as an act of symbolic resistance against Russian aggressors.
Their faces were determined, and the line was quieter than the emotional bustle of people fleeing to Poland.
Tatiyana Veremychenko said that Ukrainian women have the strength, will and heart to help their country.
Near the front was Tatiyana Veremychenko. The 40-year-old woman had arrived in Poland three days earlier to take her two adult daughters to safety from the war. She said that she now returns to eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border.
Veremychenko recounted that he felt an emptiness being away from Ukraine. Sitting in Poland seemed too peaceful and serene. She wanted to go back to be with her husband, who she may soon be asked to join the Army.
“It’s my homeland. And I think I can probably be more useful if I go there than if I stay here,” he said. “Ukraine is equally important for men and women… We have the strength, the will and the heart. And the women have them too.”
Irina Orel said that she just wanted to be with her family.
Irina Odel explained that she brought her grandchildren to Poland, but felt the need to return to the rest of her family in the port city of Odessa.
“I’m anxious, but the feeling has gotten boring over time. I just want to be with my family.”
Towards the end of the row was Nelya, hugging a white puppy, her daughter Yulia and her granddaughter Sophia.
Nelya knows that her daughter would prefer everyone to be safe and together. But with her own father refusing to leave the Ukraine because it is her home, she feels called to return to him.
“I can’t give it up,” he said simply.
And that’s what unites the women heading to platform 5, heading to war: whether they’re going to help their family or their country, they’ve chosen not to abandon them.