MEDYKA: Record numbers of refugees headed into Poland from Ukraine with the total number expected to surpass 1 million later on Sunday, as Russian forces continued shelling Ukraine’s cities.
Polish border guards cleared as many as 129,000 people at border crossings on Saturday, the latest data showed, the most in a single day since the war started on February 24, bringing the total to 922,400.
“Check-in is as simplified as possible,” Polish Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska said. “The point is to confirm the identity of persons, verify documents, check the databases if they are not wanted persons. It takes a few minutes.”
“Forecasts indicate that today the number of people who entered Poland from Ukraine from February 24 will exceed one million.”
At the Medyka crossing, the busiest along Poland’s roughly 500-kilometre border with Ukraine, refugees streamed past boxes of clothes laid out along a path from the border crossing while Scouts handed out hot tea, food and toiletries.
Some carried babies, others dogs and cats wrapped in blankets. Many joined a queue for buses to the nearby town Przemysl where friends, relatives and volunteers waited to take them to other cities in Poland and beyond.
Just inside Ukraine a 10-kilometre line of cars stretched back from the Polish border, almost bumper to bumper and sometimes two abreast. Refugees trudged alongside on foot carrying bags or dragging suitcases.
“In Kyiv there are many bombs and you sit in the basement and still hear it and because of that I left this city,” said Anna Klimova, 21, after crossing the border on her way to Wroclaw to stay with her brother. “It’s a really hard situation.”
Poland’s Ukrainian community of around 1.5 million is the region’s largest and makes the country a major destination point for refugees, though fleeing Ukrainians also cross to safety through Slovakia, Hungary and northern Romania.
Poland plans to launch a platform that will allow local governments, non-governmental organisations and private companies to better coordinate relief efforts aimed at transporting supplies into Ukraine.
“Two border crossings have been designated through which this aid will be transported: Dorohusk-Jagodzin and Korczowa-Krakowiec,” the head of the Polish prime minister’s office Michał Dworczyk told reporters. “Through these two crossings, all humanitarian cargo transports can reach Ukraine.” — AFP
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