200,000 Ukrainian refugees left Poland for other countries

Nearly 200,000 Ukrainian refugees who had arrived in Poland since the start of the Russian invasion have left the country by rail to go to other host countries, the Polish railway authorities announced today.

From February 25 to March 20, almost 400 scheduled rail services carried more than 140,000 passengers from Ukraine free of charge and 113 special rail services carried more than 45,000 passengers, said a spokesman for PLK, which operates the Polish railway network. Siemens.

These were travelers with main destinations Berlin, but also Prague and Vienna.

The various railway companies operating the Polish railways, including the regional ones, have all adopted the principle of free admission of war refugees on domestic and international routes.

According to border guards, 2,141,000 people who escaped the Russian invasion arrived in Poland from Ukraine from February 24 to March 21. To this number must be added an unknown number of people who left Ukraine via the borders of Moldova or Romania and then entered Poland, where the long-established Ukrainian community numbers about one and a half million people.

The Polish authorities do not have statistics on the total number of refugees who have gone abroad, as they cross the internal borders of the Schengen area without any control.

Many Ukrainians and nationals of other countries who came to Poland continued their journey to the West by bus or passenger car, and some by air.

On the other hand, the Polish border guards counted people who traveled to Ukraine. Their number reached 274,000 in the same period.

SOURCE: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ