Addressing a meeting of foreign ambassadors in Warsaw, Mateusz Morawiecki said that Poles were "extending their hearts to the Ukrainian people” amid the Russian attack.
“Today is the time to be helpful,” Morawiecki said, pledging that “Poland will support all those affected by the conflict in Ukraine.”
Morawiecki told the gathering that "the Russian attack on Ukraine has caused a humanitarian crisis” and that this crisis was “growing by the hour” as the Russian army shelled civilian facilities such as schools and kindergartens.
He said that "ever larger numbers" of Ukrainian "women, children, but also elderly people” were fleeing their homes and pouring into Poland.
Around 300,000 Ukrainian refugees have already crossed the border, Morawiecki told the meeting, which was held to discuss efforts to coordinate humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Morawiecki said that support for displaced Ukrainians had to be "not only spontaneous, but also systemic,” Poland's PAP news agency reported.
“And it is becoming more systemic,” he added, noting that Poland had put in place an "extensive logistics and accommodation infrastructure, and, above all, a whole process for settling people who are arriving in Poland."
Morawiecki also said that humanitarian convoys were setting off for Ukraine from Poland every day, organised by the government and charities, including the Roman Catholic Church's Caritas relief agency.
'Extensive system of aid for Ukraine’
Overall, the Polish government has launched an "extensive system of humanitarian aid" for Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees who are already in Poland, Morawiecki told the gathering.
He praised what he said was a nationwide effort to help Ukrainians and added that Polish people were passing "this test of responsibility and solidarity” with flying colours.
He told the meeting: “We are doing everything we can to alleviate the great pain experienced by the Ukrainian people affected by the Russian attack. We have the longest land border with Ukraine of all the EU countries, and for this reason most people are coming to Poland.”
The assembled diplomats represented European Union member states as well as those from the European Economic Area and other countries, the PAP news agency.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin last Thursday announced a "special military operation" against Ukraine to eliminate what he said was a "serious threat" against his country.
Despite appeals and warnings from the international community, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its southern neighbour by land, air and sea, the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War II, the Reuters news agency reported.
Top Polish officials have condemned Russia's attack on Ukraine and vowed to support the Ukrainian people.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP