Rzeszów, Poland, March 5 (AFP/APP):US Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised Poland Saturday for its open embrace of hundreds of thousands of fleeing Ukrainians and said Washington was preparing to set aside another $2.75 billion for the humanitarian crisis.
“The people of Poland know how important it is to defend freedom,” he said after talks with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau in Rzeszow, near the border with Ukraine.
“Poland is doing vital work in response to this crisis.”
He said the White House was seeking $2.75 billion (2.51 billion euros) to provide support for those fleeing Ukraine, and countries that accept them, after Russia began its invasion on February 24.
Speaking next to Blinken, Rau said Poland would remain open to refugees.
“Russia’s aggression in Ukraine caused a humanitarian crisis of an unimaginable scale,” said Rau.
“Our priority is organizing effective aid to hundreds of thousands, and soon to be millions of refugees.”
Rau also pledged not to discriminate between refugees of different nationalities, after reports circulated in Washington that Africans and others fleeing from Ukraine were being impeded at the border with Poland.
He accused Russian forces of committing “war crimes” by shelling in residential areas.
Blinken arrived in Poland on Saturday for talks with officials on cooperation on defense and humanitarian support related to the conflict.
More than 780,000 people have fled Ukraine into Poland since the invasion began on February 24.
Including other neighbouring countries, more than a million have left Ukraine and a million more are estimated to be displaced within the country.
After meeting with Blinken in Rzeszow, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called for tougher sanctions against Russia saying they should be “hitting Vladimir Putin’s war machine”.
Morawiecki called for all Russian banks to be excluded from the SWIFT payment system and said asset freezes “should be as extensive as possible”.
Blinken is visiting key allies in Europe to demonstrate Washington’s support for their security and shore up Western unity against Moscow.
He will travel next to Moldova, which has also experienced an inflow of Ukrainians, and the three Baltic states, particularly concerned about Russia.
Blinken spent Friday in Brussels in meetings with counterparts at NATO and the European Union to discuss putting more pressure on Russia and add support for refugees.
“The Kremlin’s attacks are inflicting an ever increasing toll on civilians there. Hundreds if not thousands of Ukrainians have been killed, many more wounded,” he said in Brussels Thursday.
“More than a million refugees have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries,” he said, pledging more support from Washington.
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