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Everywhere in Warsaw the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian women and children are visible in the streets. They are making an extreme draw on the Polish budget, Rutte knew, who shook hands with a mother of two from Ukraine. Housing, education, health care and financial support for this huge group is a priority. “I hope you can settle in and return to Ukraine later,” the prime minister said, folding his hands. “Let’s pray for it.”
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Rutte shakes hands with a Ukrainian refugee.
Ⓒ ANP / HH
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The years of quarrel with Poland about the rule of law and the blockage of the billions from the European ‘corona recovery fund’ were not central this time. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki did not want to use the extra inhabitants as political change: “We are not going to mix the topics.”
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50,000 people to the Netherlands
Rutte, who also visited a shelter in Warsaw, indicated that the Dutch accommodation of Ukrainians ‘will be doubled to fifty thousand people’. But in Poland, the need is much greater: “The humanitarian catastrophe has arrived here,” Morawiecki said dryly.
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Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski of Warsaw visit a reception center for refugees.
Ⓒ ANP / HH
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“I am very impressed by Polish society,” Rutte later said in the gymnasium of Arena Ursynow, where camp beds for three hundred displaced persons were neatly lined up. Scouts and female volunteers in yellow vests helped.
traumatized children
“Many children come from the war traumatized,” liberal mayor Rafael Trzaskowski told Rutte. The Polish prime minister said that these are ‘different refugees’ than in 2015, when mainly Syrian asylum seekers came to Europe. “These are mainly women and children.” Morawiecki wants the EU to “close all ports to Russian ships” and “become independent of Moscow’s gas and oil”.
Together with him, Rutte argued in favor of meticulously documenting all war crimes. He spoke in between with President Zelensky from Kiev, who will address the House of Representatives. While the VVD leader talks with the Turkish president of NATO ally Turkey on Tuesday, he also dealt with military affairs on Monday.
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During his visit to Lithuania, he took a picture with soldiers: “It’s serious now,” he told the soldiers of the Limburgse Jagers. “Five years ago it was still theoretical.” The camp was ten kilometers from Belarus, which supports the Kremlin in the bloody war. “This is the front door of the NATO area,” said Rutte.
Also listen to The Ukraine Updatethe daily podcast with the latest news about the war in Ukraine:
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