The meeting of the Working Group on Ukraine took place on the 30th of March and began with a strong plea of solidarity with Ukrainians, both with citizens who left the country and the ones who continued to support militarily the democratic values of Ukraine. It is no secret by now that the entire European Union is united against Putin's regime, and is working towards helping Ukrainian refugees. At the meeting of the Working Group on Ukraine, mayors of Ukrainian cities, such as Mr. Vitali Klitschko, called, once again, to stop all business communications with Russia.
The discussion was focused on humanitarian aid for refugees. Poland, Moldova, and Romania are the main first-contact countries that faced increasing numbers of refugees. However, the capacities of these states to integrate coming waves of asylum seekers is limited. For this reason, mayors from these countries supported the creation of a voluntary relocation mechanism for refugees in order to lessen the asylum burden imposed on them. The role of the civil society, as well as of the local and regional initiatives to support and help refugees were constantly appreciated, especially by our member, Mr Mirosław Lech, Mayor of Korycin in Poland, who visited one of the refugee camps in the country and was surprised to see that many volunteers were sleeping on the floor to be able to continue helping refugees.
The meeting of the Working Group on Ukraine culminated with the launch of the Info-Support Hub, an online platform that set up a matching mechanism for registering specific needs and offers in order to create a centralized system for humanitarian aid.
