Although it is not easy to find anything good in the war, I decided this time to write about something good that gives strength to both those suffering from the war in Ukraine, and those who have already left Ukraine due to the military actions, or are just planning to take a train to find a safe place for themselves and families abroad.
Given the brutal reality in Ukraine, it seems to me that today the only encouraging issue that I can address in the blog is the unexpected unity of the West in connection with the support of Ukraine, regarding the immediate provision of various types of assistance. It is one thing that the West, including the countries of the EU, could not prevent the war — they certainly have responsibility for everything that is happening in Ukraine right now. But Europe, or more precisely, some European countries, took up the organization of assistance to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, undoubtedly immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
During the first three weeks of the war, more than 3 million people left Ukraine. As you know, most of them, almost 2 million people, went to Poland, a neighboring country with Ukraine, which in recent years has been resolute to act in favor of Ukrainian interests both in the international arena and also in various fields of bilateral cooperation. These 2 million refugees are not accidentally seeking asylum in Poland — Warsaw has repeatedly given proof that it is a loyal friend of Ukraine. There is nothing new or surprising in the fact that Poles are helping Ukraine in the current situation, as no one doubted Canada’s help either.
What is a pleasant surprise is the behavior of Hungary, a state that in recent years has been listed among a number of countries that maintain tense relations with Kyiv, mainly due to the restrictions of the rights of the Hungarian national minority living in the Transcarpathian region. In addition, Hungary, since 2015, has become the black sheep of the EU due to its strict refusal to accept migrants. After such preliminary events, I was surprised that Budapest was among the first to make noticeable friendly gestures towards Ukraine — Hungary not only opened all its checkpoints on its Eastern border to Ukrainian refugees, but from the first moment it tried to create decent accommodation conditions for all refugees, without any discrimination of Ukrainians, Hungarian or Russian-speakers and provide them with hot meals, medicines etc. Despite the fact that only some percent of the refugees are native Hungarians, everyone is taken care of in Hungary. Having ended the era of irreconcilable hostility with Ukraine, respect for humanitarian law and saving people’s lives was put first by Hungary. As reported, with the allocation of 3.5 million EUR to support Ukraine and Ukrainians, Hungary launched the largest humanitarian operation of its history. (In comparison, Belgium offered 3 million EUR as financial assistance.) The abovementioned reflect the strong efforts of the Hungarian government, but in addition to this, it is also worth mentioning the humanitarian public activity that began in Hungary immediately on February 24. Hungarians literally opened the doors of their homes to Ukrainians fleeing the war. Since the beginning of the war, more than 270 thousand Ukrainians have arrived in Hungary. As part of public activities, through a humanitarian program launched by the Budapest government with a charitable purpose called ’Bridge for Transcarpathia’, 2.1 million euros were collected in Hungary in three weeks. All this surprised not only me, but also the head of the European Committee, who thanked Hungary for its decisive steps and well-coordinated activities regarding Ukrainian refugees.
Besides Poland and Hungary, Romania and Slovakia were also worthy of Ms. von der Leyen’s praise. In addition to the eastern EU members, including the Baltic states, which also actively support Ukraine and accept refugees, it is worth mentioning the Republic of Moldova, that also has to face a significant influx of refugees.
In order to cope with such a huge flow of refugees from Ukraine, in addition to organizing money collections and deliveries of food and other basic necessities as humanitarian aid to the residents of Ukraine, all the listed countries had to make changes to their migration laws, facilitating the acceptance of refugees. At this point, we are also talking about such countries that in recent years have become known for their strict immigration policy — and, therefore, in my opinion, the essence of how to help Ukraine and Ukrainians in the trouble, is not in promising Kyiv unconditional EU membership as some European countries do, without any obligations, but in the number of refugees accepted on their territory, creating decent accommodation conditions for them, and to give them all hot food, clothes, and also access to health care, education and work.
This is exactly the field, collectively called humanity, where Eastern Europe surpasses the West. When difficulties of a non-bureaucratic nature appeared, some Western countries which are indirectly responsible for the current situation in Ukraine now seem to be ready to give financial assistance, even weapons to Kyiv, but reject the acceptance of Ukrainian refugees, and the EU is obviously in no hurry to develop a single mechanism for the relocation of the refugees.
This issue needs to be solved urgently, given that with a change of the situation in Ukraine for the worse and the opening of humanitarian corridors, the number of refugees on the western border of Ukraine will increase to an incredible extent. As international evacuation routes to Poland, Hungary and Slovakia are opening, and civilians are taking the road to leave Ukraine by air, rail or car, not to mention those who are going on foot, it undoubtedly will result in a new large-scale wave of refugees in Eastern Europe.
To make the right decisions regarding the fate of these people, the only aspect that EU countries should pay great attention to is the humanitarian aspect, given that the duration of the trip and border crossing is approximately 10–15 hours, but refugees from the south-east often have to travel for days. And let’ not forget that all these people are fleeing from the war inspired by the great powers.
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