Refugees from Ukraine have begun to flee the Russian invasion underway and are now arriving in nearby central European nations like Poland and Hungary, where government officials reported Thursday that they have prepared reception points and are providing food and medical care.
Predictions about the fate of Kyiv have abounded Thursday with some suggestions that the city of roughly 3 million people could fall to Russian forces encroaching there within the next few days. The U.S. predicts nearly 5 million people could be displayed. The whole of Ukraine is home to 44 million.
European Union officials indicated early Thursday that the number of refugees crossing from Ukraine into neighboring nations had not been significantly different, but local journalists and eyewitnesses have suggested the flow of people is increasing. Poland is expected to receive up to 1 million refugees.
There have been crossings at Medyka in Poland and Beregsurany and Tiszabecs in Hungary. Many have arrived on foot, walking with children and stuffed suitcases in tow. In Slovakia, Ukrainians in cars attempting to flee waited for as long as eight hours to pass through a trio of crossings on the border, Reuters reported. In Bulgaria, that nation’s president, Rumen Radev, said evacuations were underway in Ukraine to remove ethnic Bulgarians from the region. Bulgaria has promised to assist other Ukrainian refugees as well.
Germany, which is near to Poland, is also stepping up. Though no significant refugee movement has started in Germany just yet, that country’s Interior Secretary Nancy Faeser told reporters Thursday they are in talks with the European Council to develop a law that might strip any bureaucratic red tape away from Ukrainians seeking temporary protection status in the European Union.
But in Britain, despite a promise from Prime Minister Boris Johnson that 1,000 British troops would be on standby to assist those fleeing, The Independent reported unsettling news for Ukrainians that may turn to Britain for sanctuary. An announcement on a House of Commons website Thursday stated: “Ukrainian nationals in Ukraine (who aren’t immediate family members of British nationals normally living in Ukraine, or where the British national is living in the UK), are currently unable to make visa applications to visit, work, study or join family in the UK.”
The disruption was due to the closure of a UK visa application office in Kyiv. Applications will be made available to those Ukrainians without British relatives in Poland, Romania, Moldova, and Hungary.
Ireland’s Taoiseach, or prime minister, Michael Martin, announced Thursday that Ireland would waive visa requirements for fleeing Ukrainians.
The situation on the ground in Ukraine has unfolded so swiftly that many refugee aid organizations are in the process of establishing the facts, including what nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) on the ground may still be fully operational.
Yael Schacher, deputy director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International, told Daily Kos in an interview Thursday that one of the silver linings for Ukrainians right now is the existing rules for travel in the Schengen Zone.
That zone, made up of 26 countries, has lax border controls and in many instances, Schengen Zone nations do not require a person traveling through the area to have a visa for at least 90 days. This is the case in Poland.
“That’s important,” Schacher said. “Borders are essentially open for a short time for Ukrainians to come in, get shelter, and find help.”
Poland has also lifted the requirements that those crossing into their borders produce a negative COVID-19 test.
In nations where visa rules aren’t as lax, Schacher cautioned that time would tell what would happen there, but for now, what the U.S. government can do is advocate strongly for nations like Poland and Hungary to keep being receptive, and to consider upping humanitarian aid to those nations so they could facilitate the exodus.
“We’re all trying to figure out how many people are going to cross, how many will stay, and how many will use reception centers as opposed to moving on to family elsewhere in Europe,” Schacher said, noting that unlike other refugee crises, many Ukrainians have family outside of Ukraine’s borders to turn to.
This expansion is the result, in small part, of a war that has been going on in the region for years.
In the coming days, more reliable and credible information about which aid organizations are fully functional in Ukraine or nearby should be available, Schacher said. They suspect those who have been pushed out of the eastern region will make their way to western Ukraine.
Sunil Varghese, the policy director at International Refugee Assistance, told Daily Kos that what Americans can do in the meantime is call on their government to “recommit to the basic principle that people fleeing war and conflict must have access to safety.”
“Those who are forced to leave Ukraine must be welcomed with safe housing conditions, meaningful access to the right asylum, and be allowed to return to Ukraine if and when it is safe to do so,” Varghese said.
Meanwhile in the U.S., the Republican leadership of the Illinois General Assembly announced Thursday that it would soon introduce a bill that would help Ukrainians resettle.
The legislation was announced by Tom Demmer, deputy leader for the Illinois state House Republicans. A summary of the bill has proposed an increase of $20 million to the Department of Homeland Security for 2022 and 2023 to aid Ukrainian resettlement.
"I call on my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come together quickly on a bipartisan basis to pass my legislation into law so that the State of Illinois is prepared to provide the necessary aid to Ukrainian refugees and their families during this tragic and anxious period in their lives," Demmer added.
The U.S. has already increased military and economic aid to Ukraine, providing missiles and other equipment. In the last year alone, America committed over $600 million in military aid to Ukraine and has provided over $2.7 billion since 2014.
Donations to the UN Refugee Agency can be made here.
The State Department is advising U.S. citizens in Ukraine to leave immediately if possible.