Risking death about Russian bombs in Ukraine is better than awaiting "slow death" in one's home country: Syria, wracked by a conflict without end and rampant poverty. This is the choice being made by dozens of Syrians in Damascus and other cities of the country destroyed by eleven years of war while watching the escape of almost two million people from Ukraine as the Russian offensive against it continues.

"Let's leave now for Ukraine and from there enter Poland. Then we will arrive in Germany," is one of the suggestions frequently heard in recent days on Whatsapp chats, social media, and private conversations collected by ANSA through contact with numerous Syrians who say they are "willing to do anything not to die of hardship in our country."

Only three months ago, thousands of migrants from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries went to the border between Belarus and Poland, asking in vain for political asylum. That border remained closed, however, for most of these Syrians -- alongside Iraqis, Yemenis, and Afghans -- who had gone there with the hope of entering the EU. That hope has now been rekindled, paradoxically, by another war.

Facing another war in the hope of a new life in Europe

"Once there it will be easy to cross the border into Poland," said 'Salwa', the pseudonym of one of the Syrians interviewed. "We are following the news and we see that European embassies are still open. There is the hope of getting political asylum," the woman originally from the outskirts of Damascus said.

The UN estimates that 90% of the Syrian population is living in poverty and the local currency is plunging ever lower. In eleven years of war, some 12 million Syrians have been left homeless: half of whom fled abroad, mostly trapped in countries neighbouring Syria.

With Turkish soldiers often opening fire on Syrians trying to cross the country's land border with it, the only way out for many Syrians is through Lebanon and then via sea.

However, there are many dangers involved in this route, starting from the fear of ending up arrested by the Lebanese police. The authorities in Beirut and those on the nearby island of Cyprus work together to intercept any boats leaving from the coast of the city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon to reach the Aegean Sea.

"It is too dangerous. It does not make sense to take this journey," said Othman, the pseudonym of a middle-aged Syrian from Homs. "Don't you read the news? The road to get from Syria to Ukraine is full of dangers. How do you think you will get safe and sound to Lviv?," he said in reference to a city in Ukraine not far from the country's border with Poland.

Syrian mercenaries reportedly recruited by Russian military

Over the weekend, news appeared about the enlistment by the Russian military in Syria of an unspecified number of Syrian mercenaries to send to Ukrainian fronts.

Rida, the pseudonym of a Syrian man from Tartous, commented by saying that for now this seems more of a provocation but that it may turn out to be true soon.

"Let's enlist now as mercenaries with the Russians. Once in Ukraine, we'll drop our weapons and flee to Poland as refugees," he said.