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‘How can I survive’: Chinese stranded in Ukraine feel left to their fate as Russian shelling continues
- Chinese tourist trapped by war speaks of feeling helpless and abandoned
- Some Chinese in Ukraine claim to have faced hostility from locals angry over China’s reluctance to condemn Russia
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Cao never imagined his holiday in eastern Europe would involve hunkering down in a bomb shelter as Russian shells thudded outside near the devastated Ukrainian city of Chernihiv.
The 25-year-old, one of about 6,000 Chinese nationals who were in Ukraine when Russia invaded, described feeling helpless and abandoned after essentially being told by China’s embassy in Kyiv to fend for himself.
“The embassy told us to find a way to solve the problems we’re facing by ourselves,” he said from a small town outside Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, where he has sought refuge with a local family.
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“They said that fighting is everywhere, they aren’t able to do anything … Shouldn’t this be a nation’s responsibility?” he said via China’s WeChat messaging app.
China waited until war broke out to announce evacuation efforts for its citizens, weeks after Western countries warned theirs to leave, and has avoided condemning close ally Moscow.
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