Tens of thousands had to wait long hours in freezing conditions to leave their country with lines of cars stretched for several kilometres towards the border crossing at Medyka, southern Poland, some 85 km from Lviv in western Ukraine.
Poland has the region's largest Ukrainian community of about 1 million people. Its authorities said wait times to cross the border ranged between 6 and 12 hours.
The refugees are mainly women and children as men of fighting age are not allowed to leave their country.
Recent Ukrainian rules restrict men aged 18-60, who could be conscripted, from crossing the borders according to the general mobilisation decree that Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky signed on Thursday in the wake of Russia's invasion.
Poland's deputy interior minister Paweł Szefernaker said Ukrainian bus drivers were unable to drive across the border as conscription-age men were being held back in Ukraine. He added that over 50,000 Ukrainian citizens entered Poland over the last two days.
Spokesman for a southern department of Poland’s Border Guard Piotr Zakielarz said that the traffic was mainly pedestrian there. He added that most of the incoming Ukrainians had their stay in Poland arranged beforehand and in most cases they were picked up at the border by their families, friends or employers.
Krzysztof Stanowski of the Municipal Office of the eastern city of Lublin told Radio Poland on Friday that local authorities were bracing for a wave of Ukrainian refugees. He added that the city could initially accommodate up to 15,000 in dormitories and hotels.
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Source: IAR, Reuters