PRZEMYSL, Poland: Ukraine’s neighbours reported a dip in numbers of refugees on Saturday (Mar 12) as governments and volunteers struggled to find shelter for the nearly 2.6 million mostly women and children who have fled since Russia’s invasion two weeks ago.
Arrivals were still building on an influx that is overwhelming volunteers, non-governmental organisations and authorities in eastern Europe’s border communities as well as the big cities to which most of the refugees head.
Poland’s Border Guard said 76,200 people arrived on Friday – a drop of 12 per cent from the day before. Slovak police reported a similar dip in numbers, to 9,581 people, and arrivals to Romania dropped by 22 per cent to 16,348, police said.
Fighting raged northwest of Kyiv and many Ukrainian cities were encircled on Saturday. Bombardments and threats of Russian air attacks endangered attempted evacuations, Ukrainian officials said.
The mayor of Przemysl, a Polish city of 60,000 near the Medyka border crossing, said the number of people arriving fell to around 18,000 over the past day from 23,000 the day before and peaks of over 50,000.
Wojciech Bakun said he needed support to prepare accommodation for 2,000-3,000 people in Przemysl.
“I have the buildings but they need work, it would require between 10-20 million zloty (US$2.28-4.57 million). I can’t finance this from the municipal budget as we have other needs, it could be funds from the European Union or from the government,” he said.
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