By the end of the year, 12 more modular towns will be built in Ukraine for some 5,000 residents forced to leave their own homes due to Russian aggression. “The initiative is being implemented with the support of the Polish government”, reported Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday, citing the Ukrainian ministry of regional development.

Thanks to the cooperation of the Polish Chancellery of the Prime Minister and the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves and the Ministry of Regional Development of Ukraine, 12 such towns have so far been set up, half of the total planned.

More than 3,500 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have taken up residence in centres located in the Kyiv (Irpin, Bucha, Borodyanka, Vasylkovo and Makarov) and Chernihiv (Novoselivka) regions, as well as in Lviv, Interfax-Ukraine reported. It was announced that four more temporary towns would soon be completed.

According to the Polish Embassy in Kyiv, the last such township was put into operation on 29 October in Vasylkovo, near the Ukrainian capital. The facility will provide shelter for 352 people. The opening of the buildings was attended by Polish Ambassador Bartosz Cichocki, Ukraine’s Minister of Regional Development Oleksiy Chernyshov and the Governor of the Kyiv region Oleksiy Kuleba.

The first towns were launched in April and June. On 1 June, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin and Minister Chernyshov attended the opening of a temporary township of container houses in Borodyanka, also built with the support of the Polish government. On 19 April, Prime Minister Morawiecki opened a similar centre in Lviv.

Between 24 February, the day Russia’s aggression began, and 9 November, more than 7.6 million refugees from Ukraine crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border. According to the Border Guard, they are mainly women and children. In the same period, more than 5.807 million people returned to Ukraine from Poland.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński