1 Apr 2022 15:54

Some 12,000 Ukrainian refugees in Belarus since beginning of March - Belarusian State Border Committee

MINSK. April 1 (Interfax) - Some 12,000 refugees from Ukraine have arrived in Belarus since the beginning of March 2022, the Belarusian State Border Committee said on Friday.

"A total of 11,563 citizens of Ukraine entered our country from March 1 to April 1: 8,291 came from the territory of Ukraine, 3,032 in transit through Poland, 194 through Lithuania, and 46 through Latvia," the report said.

The Belarusian Red Cross Society, in collaboration with the Emergency Situations Ministry, deployed mobile warming points in the Gomel region near the village of Gden, the facilitated checkpoint Poddobryanka and the border pass Novaya Guta, the State Border Committee said.

"Rescuers, healthcare workers and Red Cross volunteers are on duty in these places round-the-clock to provide timely assistance," the State Border Committee said.

To help foreign citizens coming from Ukraine return to their permanent residences, the Belarusian administration has made a decision to allow them to enter the country without visas until April 15.