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African governments on Monday were scrambling to help their nationals escape the Russian invasion in Ukraine as reports emerged of racist and unfair treatment of their citizens at the border with Poland. 

The reports, denied by both Polish and Ukrainian officials, have cast a pall on the massive evacuation effort that has already seen half a million civilians cross into the European Union.

While some Africans have been able to leave Ukraine, FRANCE 24 spoke to several students on Sunday at Lviv train station in western Ukraine who said they were turned back by Ukrainian border guards while attempting to cross into Poland.

“They stopped us at the border and told us that Blacks were not allowed. But we could see White people going through,” said Moustapha Bagui Sylla, a student from Guinea. He said he fled his university residence in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, as soon as the bombing began.

Like thousands of Ukrainian civilians scrambling for the border, the young Guinean said he walked for hours in freezing temperatures heading for the Polish frontier village of Medyka – only to be ordered to turn back.

Another student from Nigeria described similar scenes at the border crossing. He said his group, which included women, was shut out of the border post even as White people were let through. 

“They won’t let Africans in. Blacks without European passports cannot cross the border (...). They’re pushing us back just because we’re Black!” said the Nigerian student, who gave only his first name, Michael. “We’re all human,” he added. “They should not discriminate against us because of the colour of our skin.”