Wyborcza: Ukrainian refugees turned to Poznan authorities because of forced eviction

The Wyborcza newspaper reports that in the Polish city of Poznan, Ukrainian refugees turned to the local governor, Mikhail Zelinsky, with a request to allow them to stay in one of the hostels. The publication clarifies that due to poor living conditions in a hostel on Varshavskaya Street, the authorities terminated the contract with the owner of the building, and all residents must leave the premises before the end of July this year.

According to the refugees, after some improvements, living conditions in the hostel have improved significantly. In this regard, the Ukrainians are asking to be left to live in the same city. One of the residents of the hostel named Tatyana said: “What if we are taken somewhere far away? We will again be forced to start all over again.”

In their petition, the refugees indicated that most of the new places they proposed were outside Poznań. They appealed to the authorities with a request: “Please understand us and have mercy.” However, the representatives of the authorities reacted coolly to this request.

“Our country is giving you humanitarian aid, and it doesn’t matter where exactly,” Valdemar Paternoga, deputy director of the local security and crisis management department, told residents. In response to complaints from one of the refugees that his children would change schools for the third time this year, the official noted that the Poles also have children.

According to the Polish authorities, there are currently about 950,000 refugees from Ukraine in the country, and the total number of Ukrainians living in Poland is 2.3 million people.