President Joe Biden on Tuesday pledged to increase US humanitarian support for the people of Ukraine so that European countries do not have to bear the full cost and burden.
“The United States will share the responsibility for taking care of the refugees, so the cost does not fall entirely on Ukraine’s neighboring European countries,” Biden said during remarks at the White House.
Ukraine is going through a farcical crisis due to the invasion of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
To date, two million people have fled Ukraine In what the United Nations described as the biggest farcical crisis since World War II.
More than 1,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since the Russian invasion on 24 February.
Ukraine suffers comic crisis due to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion – above a young woman sheltering in a gymnasium in Przemysl, Poland
Neighboring countries are flooded with refugees – mostly women and children – above refugees board a train at Schlemm train station in Poland after crossing the border from Ukraine
Poland has taken in more Ukrainians than any other neighboring country – a refugee center for Ukrainians in Warsaw, Poland
President Joe Biden has pledged to increase US humanitarian support for the people of Ukraine so that European countries do not have to bear the full cost
There is a shortage of food and other basic supplies in the besieged cities. In addition, about 700,000 people lack access to electricity and heating after infrastructure was destroyed.
According to the United Nations, another million Ukrainians are said to have been forced from their homes and internally displaced.
The United Nations noted that it took a week for the number of refugees to reach one million, and in just five days since then, that number has doubled.
Refugees – mostly women and children – poured in from neighboring countries, and Poland took in more Ukrainians than any other neighboring country.
Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Poland on Wednesday.
Hungary, Slovakia, and Romania each accepted tens of thousands of refugees while other European countries took in about 210,000 refugees in total.
To help ease the financial burden on Europe, Biden called on Congress on Tuesday to pass the $10 million Ukraine aid package he has requested.
We are working with humanitarian organizations to send tens of thousands of tons of food, water and medical supplies to Ukraine. “With more on the way,” the president said.
Congress is expected to take action on the aid package this week.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill end the humanitarian, military and economic aid package for Ukraine. It will be linked to a US government funding bill, legislation that must be passed by Congress before midnight Friday or the federal government will shut down.
Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that number could be as high as $14 billion.
Ukrainian refugees wait for an appointment at the registration and shelter center set in the former Jules Bordet Hospital in Brussels.
Vladislava, 7, and David, 3, from Zhitomir, Ukraine, huddle together to get warm after crossing the border into Dorhusk, Poland
People arrive at a temporary accommodation and transportation center for refugees, after fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Przemysl, Poland
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba speak to the media after meeting refugees at the Ukrainian-Polish border crossing in Korčova, Poland on Saturday.
Biden did not specifically say in his statements that the United States would accept refugees at its borders.
The Biden administration last week granted Ukrainians already in the United States Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which protects them from deportation and allows them to obtain work permits for 18 months.
The foreign minister, Anthony Blinken, visited the borders between Poland, Ukraine and Moldova on Saturday to visit refugee camps.
On Saturday, Blinken visited a welcome center set up by Polish authorities in what was once a shopping center in Korčova, near the border with Ukraine, where some 3,000 refugees are sheltering.
The United States is committed to doing everything we can, first and foremost, to support countries that bear the direct burden of taking in Ukrainians, and then, as appropriate, if people seek refugee status in the United States, we will, of course. Look at that, I’m sure of it,” Blinken told CNN on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the UK has been criticized for the number of refugees it has accepted so far.
Critics have criticized ministers for the slow pace of processing applications amid broader calls for Britain to come up with a more generous scheme to help people fleeing the Russian invasion.
