Interior minister: Large winter wave of Ukraine refugees would pose difficulties

The Czech minister of the interior, Vít Rakušan, says this winter could see a large new wave of refugees from Ukraine in view of the state of the infrastructure in the country. The news site Novinky.cz quoted Mr. Rakušan as saying that if numbers approached those seen in the first wave following Russia’s invasion it would be difficult for Czechia to deal with the arrivals.

The minister said the country would be able to take in half a million more Ukrainian refugees on top of the around 350,000 already present. However, anything above that number would mean, for instance, improvised accommodation. High hundreds of thousands would be beyond Czechia’s capacity, he said.

Mr. Rakušan said the question of such refugees had been discussed on a recent Czech government visit to Kyiv, but refused to reveal concrete estimates of numbers.