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Vienna prepares to welcome more Ukrainian refugees
Updated 22:56, 16-Mar-2022
Johannes Pleschberger in Vienna
Europe;Austria
02:08

 

While many Ukrainians who've fled the war are currently sheltering in Poland, other neighboring countries are preparing for further influxes of people.  

Austria's capital Vienna, located about 400 kilometers from Ukraine's border, has converted a sports arena into a welcoming center providing shelter and psychological care for traumatized Ukrainians.  

"We offer food and water and whatever you need for children," Saskia Schwaiger from Vienna's municipality told CGTN. "People want to help." 

 

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Some of Vienna's emergency shelters are already struggling to host a high number of Ukrainian refugees, like at the city's central railway station. 

Fortunately for Dariia Hytsiuk and Anna Artemova, they've found accommodation with friends. Since they arrived in Austria, the two Russian-speaking lawyers from Kyiv and Odessa have been protesting against Moscow's military operations.

  

Welcoming center set up in an old sports hall. /CGTN Europe

Welcoming center set up in an old sports hall. /CGTN Europe

 

During her escape on February 26, Dariia and her parents barely avoided a military confrontation. "We saw how Russian drones were flying and searching for us. Everybody cried. It was like a horror film," says the 36-year-old. 

The United Nations estimates that as many as four million Ukrainians could leave their war-torn country. Roughly one million of them have already crossed the border. 

Such numbers could prove another headache for European neighbors who are currently welcoming Ukrainians with open arms, as they did initially following the Syrian refugee crisis of 2015, only for that welcome to fade. 

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