Quantcast
Some 5 million people could flee Ukraine, EU’s Borrell says – Metro US

Some 5 million people could flee Ukraine, EU’s Borrell says

FIE PHOTO: NATO foreign ministers gather for a meeting following
FIE PHOTO: NATO foreign ministers gather for a meeting following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in Brussels

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – As many as five million Ukrainians are expected to flee the country if Russia’s bombing of Ukraine continues, the EU’s top diplomat said on Monday.

“We must prepare to receive around five million people … We must mobilise all the resources of the EU to help those countries receiving people,” Josep Borrell told reporters as he arrived for a meeting of EU development ministers in Montpellier, France. “We will need more schools, more reception centres, more of everything,” he said.

Borrell also pledged more scrutiny of EU aid spending in countries that have supported Russia diplomatically or abstained from criticising Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by John Chalmers)