site.btaUPDATED Close to 70,000 People from Ukraine Entered Bulgaria, Over 33,000 Remained 

Since February 24, 69,735 people have entered Bulgaria after fleeing the Ukraine war and 33,516 remained, a third of them children, Deputy Prime Minister Kalina Konstantinova said here Saturday. She heads the crisis unit that the government set up to plan and organize activities by the Bulgarian state institutions for evacuation and receiving people from Ukraine.

Konstantinova spoke at the first news briefing of the crisis management unit. 

Commenting the financial aspects of receiving people from Ukraine, she said that the EU is considering supporting the countries that take in refugees from Ukraine but before a decision is made the local authorities will have to rely on their own resources. She said that municipalities have crisis management plans and have to activate them.

Valeri Rachev, an advisor to the Prime Minister and member of the crisis coordination group, said that Bulgaria needs to change the model for providing temporary protection. After the people from Ukraine cross into Bulgaria, they will be directed to go to reception centres where documents will be immediately issued to those asking temporary protection. Arrangements are being made for coordinating the transportation, accommodation and employment of these people. Six consuls have been sent to the Ukraine’s border with Moldova and Romania to gather preliminary information about the expected arrivals in Bulgaria. Transportation will be provided by 12 buses of the Defence Ministry, private bus operators and the local authorities are also involved, said Rachev.

He repeated several times that it is important to have utmost mobilization of resources on regional and municipal level: state institutions, volunteers and NGOs. He said that it is the way to prevent a critical situation where people fleeing the Ukraine war will have to sleep in bus and train stations, or in tents set up in the mud. MORE