Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, more than 500,000 people are estimated to have fled Ukraine for neighboring countries. Amid the exodus from the country, a number of accounts have emerged on social media and in various news outlets detailing discrimination experienced by people of African descent, as well as other people of color trying to leave Ukraine.

Some have accused white Ukrainian citizens and border agents of racism, including forcing groups of Black and brown people to wait while white people board trains to the border. And others have said that border guards in neighboring nations have prevented them from entering.

To get a better sense of the racial demographics of Ukraine and how racism might be playing into the experiences of people of color trying to leave Ukraine at the moment, The Takeaway speaks with Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania Department of History who's studying race in Ukraine and Russia and book review editor for H Net Ukraine.