Warsaw mayor on the plight of Ukraine refugees: "The West has to wake up"
With Sunday's Russian missile attack on a military base in western Ukraine less than 15 miles from the Polish border, killing at least 35 people, President Zelensky warned that "this conflict has entered a new stage of terror."
That may mean even more people fleeing the war. The latest United Nations figures indicate that nearly 2.7 million Ukrainians have fled their country since Russia's invasion began, with about 1.7 million of them entering neighboring Poland.
Reporting Monday from Medkya, Poland, at the Ukraine border, "CBS Evening News" anchor and managing editor Norah O'Donnell said the refugees are tired and scared. She talked with a woman who had just gotten off a bus carrying her baby; she hadn't slept in two days, after traveling by bus and train. "People just almost have this blank stare on their face, they have gone through so much," O'Donnell said.
She also met a family of five yesterday with their two dogs staying in a shelter in Warsaw. They are hoping to go to Canada or the United States, but they are waiting for their young daughter to recover from a stomach bug.
"For so many of these people, it seems the most dire and terrible situation as they try to find some way out," said O'Donnell. "But what has been amazing to see is how many Polish people are not just opening their houses, but also their hearts."
In one case, a 75-year-old Polish woman named Barbara is giving up her bedroom so that a Ukrainian mother and her children can stay together; she's sleeping on a small couch in her living room.
Warsaw alone has taken in more than 300,000 refugees; that means the population of that city is up nearly 20 percent in just two weeks.
On Sunday the mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, told O'Donnell they can't handle the millions more expected to come into Poland.
O'Donnell asked, "What worries you most when you talk to the refugees?"
"Some of the stories are just overwhelming and incredible, especially about kids being killed, you know, and other kids watching it," Trzaskowski replied.
"We try everything we can, you know, to create a safe haven for them, because we are absolutely certain that, you know, the Ukrainians are also fighting for our own security – and not only of Poland, but of the Western world.
"The West has to wake up and send a strong signal that they are welcome," he said, "not only in Poland and Romania and Slovakia, but everywhere."
Trzaskowski said people have been forced to improvise in order to meet the demands of the refugee crisis. "It was this incredible willingness of the people to accept Ukrainians in their homes. It was the work of the non-governmental organizations, of local government and, of course, also of the central government. But you know, there is no system with which we can welcome millions more refugees. I've just talked to some of the experts, and they say that we can expect five, seven million.
"So, we need the United Nations organizations, some of the agencies, and the E.U., to come and help us to set up a system which is going to go to work when we are going to see millions more. We need also a redistribution [of refugees] around Europe, because without that, you know, the system will crash.
"Different agencies of the U.N. work, like LEGO bricks – they can construct those reception centers, with water, with solutions, with psychologists, and so on and so forth. That's what we probably are going to need pretty soon."
Trzaskowski said the Polish government has granted refugees access to health and social services and to education. "We've opened up schools already. I have two thousand pupils from Ukraine. But of course, it puts a huge strain on the public services."
When asked how the influx of refugees – about a third of whom have been vaccinated against COVID, many with a Chinese vaccine not registered in the E.U. – may affect Poland's health infrastructure, Trzaskowski replied, "I was telling the government officials two weeks ago that we need to do something about it, that they need to set up a special reception center just for the people with COVID, because otherwise it's going to spread.
"We do not worry too much about COVID, but COVID is not gone. And on top of that, you know, our health system is under an incredible strain after COVID because people were not treated for two years. So now, if we have 20 percent more inhabitants in Poland … it's going to put an additional strain on the health service. That's why we need some of those people to be distributed around the world, because otherwise the system will crash."