- While hundreds of thousands flee Ukraine, some are returning to join the fight against Russia.
- The Polish Border Guard said around 22,000 people have reentered Ukraine since Thursday.
- Those volunteers will join thousands of civilians with little combat experience who have taken up arms in Ukraine.
As hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians flee their country, some men and women are returning to Ukraine to defend their homeland.
Around 22,000 people have crossed into Ukraine through Poland since Thursday, according to Poland's Border Guard and a report from the Associated Press. There are around 1 million Ukrainians living and working in Poland, according to the AP.
"We have to defend our homeland. Who else if not us?" one man told the AP. "The Russians should be afraid. We are not afraid."
Most of these men and women have no combat experience, limited training, and no weapons to speak of but will join the thousands of civilians in Ukraine who have already taken up arms.
"I would love not to fight, and be alive, but this is the time where if I want to be able to look myself in the mirror, I have to, have to go," another man told The Wall Street Journal. "Otherwise, I will live in my own personal hell in my head."
Some countries are offering their support to those who want to return to Ukraine and fight. The Czech Republic's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said it will offer bonuses to Ukrainian families who would lose income if "the men need to join the army."