“According to the Polish border guard service, about 2 million people have crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border since the beginning of the war, that is, in a month. Now it is difficult to estimate the exact number of those who left the territory of Poland, but this can be understood by the amount of transport. We can say that about 1.5 million people remained in Poland. Another 1.5 million Ukrainians were in Poland before the start of the war. Thus, now there are about 3 million citizens of Ukraine in Poland,” Deshchytsia said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He stressed that the assistance provided to Ukrainian citizens in Poland deserves great gratitude and praise.
“Ordinary Polish citizens, literally from the first days of the war, went to checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Polish border and met our citizens themselves, mostly women, children, the elderly, picked them up in their cars and took them to their homes,” Deshchytsia said.
According to him, there is also centralized assistance, which is very well organized.
“There is assistance both at the central and local government levels, as well as at the level of civil society. Non-governmental organizations, various foundations, volunteer organizations almost continuously provide assistance to Ukrainians,” the ambassador said.
Deshchytsia added that if we are talking about the level of state support, then at the initiative of the government and unanimous supra-party support in the Senate and the Sejm of Poland, a law on assistance to Ukrainians was adopted, helping the citizens of Ukraine to more easily adapt to the conditions in which they found themselves in Poland.
“Firstly, it allows them to stay in Poland legally for the next 18 months with the right to extend their legal stay in the country for another year and a half, and with the documents they arrived with. Secondly, this is a one-time financial assistance for each person, amounting to approximately PLN 300 [equivalent to $80-100]. Thirdly, it is an opportunity to speed up the employment procedure, the opportunity to receive the same social, medical, and pension benefits that the Poles have. To do this, however, you need to get a Polish identification code. Fourthly, this involves helping Ukrainian children to get them into educational institutions, kindergartens, as well as free education in higher educational institutions,” the Ukrainian ambassador explained.
