Moldova asks for US help as refugee numbers surge
Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita has urged the United States today to provide more humanitarian support as the number of refugees has hit 120,000.
At the beginning of a meeting with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Gavrilita said her country, one of Europe’s poorest, was straining under the weight of those fleeing Russia’s invasion.
“As of this morning, we had more than 230,000 people who have crossed the border from Ukraine, and 120,000 stayed in Moldova. 96,000 of them are Ukrainian citizens. For a small country like Moldova, proportionately, this is a very large number,” she told Blinken.
“Everybody has come together to host, to provide shelter, to provide food, to provide assistance to those who are fleeing war,” she said.
“But we will need assistance to deal with this influx, and we need this quickly,” she added.
