Despite the difficult socioeconomic situation in the Republic of Moldova, many Ukrainian refugees decide to remain in our country and this shows that they find the shelter they need and feel well from emotional viewpoint here, in the Republic of Moldova, the standing expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan stated in a public debate centering on the Ukrainian refugees that was hosted by IPN News Agency.
The expert said that over 90,000 Ukrainian refugees are now in Moldova and 10% of the inhabitants of the Republic of Moldova are of Ukrainian ethnicity. 90% of the refugees coming to Moldova are housed by families and this shows that the Moldovan and Ukrainian citizens have many things in common – they are mostly Orthodox Christians and they speak two languages. The Republic of Moldova has sympathy and empathy for the people of Ukraine.
Igor Boțan reminded that the Ministry of Finance of Moldova opened an account that the Moldovan citizens can use to make donations to help the Ukrainian refugees. The Moldovan authorities coped with the wave of refugees and many foreign officials appreciated this and offered assistance to Moldova for the country to be able to cope with the refugee crisis.
The project’s standing expert noted that the people of Ukraine are experienced hardships. “The shelling of peaceful cities is an absurdity and the people in Moldova realize how serious this crisis is. These people need psychological counseling as they lost in the war everything they gained throughout their lives. Furthermore, they lost dear persons in the war. The people need to show solidarity for the Ukrainian refugees as these persons who fled from the war should benefit from shelter and from other services they need,” stated Igor Boțan.
He added that even if the Ukrainian authorities would like the Republic of Moldova to support the sanctions against Russia, they realize that if these sanctions are applied, the Republic of Moldova can be punished more and this would be detrimental to the Ukrainian refugees whom came to Moldova as well. “It would be a stupidity for Moldova to subscribe to these sanctions as Moldova’s capacity to manage the refuge crisis will diminish as a result,” said Igor Boțan, noting that when the war is over, new prospects to develop the Moldovan-Ukrainian relations will appear.
The public debate titled “Ukrainian refugees: 75 days of peaceful coexistence in Moldova during war in their homeland” was the 243rd installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
