Long lines at ATMs to collect savings, traffic jams that multiply, trains taken by storm. An unstoppable exodus despite the authorities encouraging citizens to stay and resist, taking up arms.
Thousands of Ukrainians flee their homes and press on the eastern border of the European Union to escape after the Russian invasion of the country . The UN already speaks of 100,000 refugees but sees a real humanitarian crisis on the horizon with numbers that can rise to 5 million.
The countries bordering Ukraine, in that case, would not withstand the impact. In the last 24 hours, refugees sheltered in Moldova are already 16 thousand, in Romania 10 thousand. 100,000 are expected in Lithuania in the coming days and Warsaw estimates that it will have to welcome at least one million.
In Brussels, but also in Washington, a plan is being worked out to manage the emergency. Tomorrow the European ministers of internal affairs will meet in an extraordinary way: "France will do its part, and the Ukrainians who leave the country will be able to be welcomed into Europe", promised French President Emmanuel Macron. A position fully shared by Italy, with the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi who underlined how it is possible to imagine "a huge flow of Ukrainian refugees to neighboring European countries".
The White House has already made it known through spokeswoman Jen Psaki that the Biden administration is ready to make its contribution and to welcome those fleeing the invasion of the Moscow forces, also promising the help of American troops to the Europeans committed to transfer refugees from one country to another of the Old Continent.
But to complicate everything there is also the pandemic. In fact, among the main problems to be solved in order to arrive at a European plan that is truly effective, there is that of the resources that must be used not only to guarantee refugees a shelter, education for children or health care. Host countries have to deal with Covid and certainly not encouraging data: less than 35% of Ukrainian citizens are fully vaccinated.
(Unioneonline / D)