WARSAW, Jun 12 The flow of Ukrainian citizens arriving in Poland increased again, Polish President Andrzej Duda told reporters before meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
«Since February 24, 2022, millions of refugees from Ukraine have passed through the Polish land. Now about one and a half million citizens of Ukraine are registered in Poland. We estimate that more than two million citizens of Ukraine are permanently in Poland,» Duda said.
He noted that recently much more Ukrainians enter Poland than they leave back.
«Yesterday 32,000 crossed the border into Poland, 23,000 — in the other direction. Until recently, this number was equal — how many came, how many left,» the Polish president said.
«Now after the beginning of the Ukrainian counter-offensive and the intensification of fighting and after the explosion of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, the number of people arriving in Poland has increased,» he stated.
Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine in 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» He noted that the special operation was a forced measure, Russia «was left no chance to do otherwise, security risks were created such that it was impossible to react by other means.» According to him, Russia has been trying for 30 years to agree with NATO on the principles of security in Europe, but in response it faced either cynical deceit and lies, or attempts to pressure and blackmail, while the alliance, despite Moscow’s protests, is steadily expanding and approaching borders of the Russian Federation.