Dozens of refugees from Ukraine were seen arriving at the asylum centre in Berlin’s Reinickendorf borough, on Sunday, as Russia’s offensive in Ukraine entered its fourth day.
“I plan to come back to Lviv and help my friends and neighbours to fight against the Russian occupation,” said Julian, a Ukrainian living in Berlin whose wife, son and mother-in-law arrived from Ukraine on Sunday morning.
Maria, another Ukrainian living in Germany, was seen donating clothes and toys for some of the refugees. “They don’t have anything with just packs for clothes, I will try to help, I can translate the things, I can manage with the documents and just help,” she said.
According to Sascha Langenbach of the Berlin State Office for Refugee Affairs, over 200 Ukrainian refugees have contacted the centre to seek asylum, though many were able to find accommodation with friends and family in Germany.
“We do have 1,300 places capacity within our 85 buildings, all over Berlin,” he explained. “In the upcoming three weeks, we will have a couple of more houses in the system, so that we have another capacity of about 1,200 places.”
Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday morning, sending tanks and tens of thousands of troops into the country, in a move largely condemned by the international community.
Fighting broke out in multiple cities including the capital, Kiev and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has since declared martial law in response to the situation.