The Korczowa shopping mall was once bustling with shoppers. Today it is bustling with refugees from Ukraine.

Every day an average of around 6000 people filter through this space, which is about ten kilometres from the Korczowa border crossing between Poland and Ukraine.

Here they can get a bite to eat, get a free SIM card and freshen up. Upwards of 2000 people spend the night on small cots offered to them as they contemplate what to do next.

International aid organisations are on hand to help them access the many services available for them now that they are in an EU country and representatives from different EU countries are available to answer any questions they may have.

A place to go

Some arrive in Poland knowing exactly where they are going to next. Many are heading to family members or friends in other cities across Poland or in other EU countries.

One such person is Olena Vynohradova who fled Irpin, a city on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capitol Kyiv, with her daughter and her Georgian husband.

Through tears, she told CGTN that she was relieved to be in Poland.

"We stayed as long as we could. However, when they began bombing us from the sky, both night and day…shelling became more and more frequent, and fired on civilians, unfortunately people died."

Olena says, even when they had made the decision to go, it was difficult to leave.

"All bridges are destroyed. People couldn't leave. Firstly, we wanted to go by train, but the railway tracks were bombed. So we were evacuated by buses. Our military and territorial defense helped get us all out."

Luckily they have family in Georgia they are going to stay with.

Uncertainty

Yet others are unsure of what to do next, such as 20 year old Sofia Korshak, a university student from Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city and now one of its most destroyed.

She escaped on a train to Kyiv, which had to keep changing tracks. All windows and lights were closed so that they did not become a target for Russian jets circling the sky above. She had a fiance in Kharkiv, but since he is of fighting age, he had to stay behind. Now in Poland, Sofia doesn't know what to do.

"I have six months left to study at university to get a higher education," she told CGTN. 

"Most likely, I won't graduate. So I will have to find something in another country, learn something new, look for a new job, where to live. I just have to start life all over again from scratch."

Once people decide where they are going to next, free bus services await them to help them with their onward journey.

Families divided

Wrapped in blankets on a small cot in the corner of a hallway, seven year old Myroslava played with her adorable little dachshund. She said she was only a " little bit" scared of the journey, but what she misses most is her dad who had to stay in Ukraine.

"My dad stayed at home because he said, there are some people with guns going around and breaking glass."

She didn't know where she was going to next.

According to the United Nations, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, now in its fourth week, makes fifty-five children refugees every minute.