EU set to support member states taking in Ukraine refugee flow: Envoy

By Cem San

BURSA, Turkiye (AA) – As the EU member states open their doors to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the Russia-Ukraine war, the EU will provide political support to those countries, the top EU diplomat in Turkiye said on Wednesday.

"It is a huge refugee wave which is taking place, which is (being) welcomed in the EU member states bordering Ukraine. It is difficult to predict now how big this wave would be,” Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, head of the EU Delegation to Turkiye, told Anadolu Agency.

The EU will politically support accommodating these refugees in the EU member states, he added, speaking in the northwestern city of Bursa, which he is visiting with a group of EU member state ambassadors.

Nearly 400,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to the EU member state of Poland, with others going to Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania – also members of the bloc – as well as Moldova, Belarus, and Russia, according to UN figures.

Calling the Russia-launched war on Ukraine a “landmark” event that has changed the debate about European security and the continent, Meyer-Landrut said it will affect future decisions.

“We strongly condemn this war of aggression Russia is waging against Ukraine,” he said, adding that the EU has taken very important decisions, such as unprecedented financial and economic sanctions on Russia.

He added that the EU is supporting Ukraine, including military support through member states, which are being implemented now.

Since Russia began its war on Ukraine last Thursday, it has been met by outrage from the international community, with the EU, UK, Canada, Japan, and the US implementing a range of economic sanctions on Moscow.

At least 136 civilians, including 13 children, have been killed and 400 others, including 26 children, injured in Ukraine, according to UN figures.

Around 680,000 people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, the international body said Tuesday.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar