Romania is prepared to accept 500,000 Ukrainian refugees, the country’s Defense Minister Vasile Dincu told reporters Tuesday.
According to a report from Reuters, Dincu said “there are several estimates, but we could receive over 500,000 refugees, that is…the number for which we have prepared alongside the interior ministry and other institutions.”
Dincu added that “there is a plan prepared for all large cities, there are areas for this near the borders.”
Romania shares approximately 380 miles of border with Ukraine. Reuters noted that the country saw “relatively few” Ukrainian refugees when Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in February and March 2014.
“We are also not expecting a major influx coming here now, but one never knows,” Dincu told reporters.
NBC News noted that Romania’s Interior Minister Lucian Bode said the government was crafting an “action plan” to accommodate refugees, which included temporary mobile camps in northeastern Romanian border counties.
"We are currently analyzing how many refugee camps we can install in a relatively short time, 10, 12, 24 hours," Bode reportedly told Romanian television network B1.
Early this month, Poland’s Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik told Polish Radio that the country is prepared for a wave of one million Ukrainian refugees.
“We have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario and [we have] been taking steps so as to be prepared for a wave of up to a million people,” he stated in the radio interview.
This week, as Katie reported, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced late Monday night that U.S. personnel evacuated the Ukrainian city of Lviv to Poland. The statement comes just hours after Russia President Vladimir Putin invaded the country from the east.
In a statement, Blinken said that “our personnel will regularly return to continue their diplomatic work in Ukraine and provide emergency consular services and that “they will continue to support the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian government, coordinating on diplomatic efforts.
"The United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s aggression is unwavering. The fact that we are taking prudent precautions for the sake of the safety of U.S. government personnel and U.S. citizens, as we do regularly worldwide, in no way undermines our support for, or our commitment to, Ukraine. Our commitment to Ukraine transcends any one location,” the statement read.
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