Poland’s President opens doors
Duda accommodates refugees in service villas
3/6/2022, 6:16 p.m
Poland’s President Duda is taking an unusual approach to dealing with the onslaught of refugees from Ukraine: The politician opens the doors of his official villas. By far the majority of the well over one million people who fled the war in Ukraine are currently in Poland.
When it comes to accommodating refugees from Ukraine, every free space is needed in Poland – and President Andrzej Duda also offers some rooms. At the initiative of Poland’s first lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda, refugees have been staying in two of the president’s official villas for several days, Duda’s chancellor Adam Kwiatkowski told the PAP news agency. The President’s wife will soon visit the people there.
In addition to the Presidential Palace and the Belvedere Palace in Warsaw, which is used for representative purposes, the Polish head of state has four other official villas at his disposal, including on the Hel Peninsula on the Baltic Sea and in the winter sports resort of Wisla. According to border guards, 922,400 refugees have arrived in Poland since the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the federal police in Germany registered 37,786 refugees from Ukraine by this Sunday – almost 10,000 more than the previous day. However, a spokesman for the ministry pointed out that the actual number could be significantly higher, since the data from the federal police would only show part of it.
Biden thanked Duda
US President Joe Biden recently thanked his Polish colleague Duda for taking in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine. The White House said Biden and Duda discussed “our countries’ response to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine” during the 53-minute call on Friday. Biden underlined the US commitment to the security of Poland and all other NATO allies. According to the White House, around 9,000 US soldiers are currently stationed in Poland. 4,700 of them were relocated to the country on NATO’s eastern flank in response to the Ukraine crisis in recent weeks.
After the phone call, Duda said during a visit to Rzeszow on the Polish-Ukrainian border that Biden had called on Poles to remain calm, even if war was raging in the neighboring country. The USA and NATO guaranteed Poland’s security. “I want to emphasize this because I know there are many fears among compatriots,” said Duda. “You can be assured, ladies and gentlemen, that we are part of NATO and that the alliance is firmly behind us.”