Refugees, immigrants or tourists: Nearly 4000 Ukrainian citizens of Armenian descent arrive in Armenia in 3 weeks

YEREVAN, MARCH 17, ARMENPRESS. Nearly 4000 citizens of Ukraine arrived to Armenia in the last three weeks, according to the Ukrainian Chargé d'affaires in Armenia Denis Avtonomov.

Avtonomov said at a news conference that most of these 4000 Ukrainian citizens are ethnic Armenians. Avtonomov said those who arrived are either refugees, immigrants or tourists. “The peculiarity is that almost all of them are ethnic Armenians, and they have friends, families, homes here, that’s why they aren’t asking for help,” Avtonomov said.

He added that the Ukrainian Embassy in Yerevan has some possibilities to solve the accommodation issues for the arriving nationals, however the employment issue is far more difficult to solve.

According to Avtonomov, many citizens of Armenia – be it in Yerevan or in other cities – are applying to the Ukrainian embassy and expressing willingness to help the Ukrainian refugees in finding homes.

Overall, according to Avtonomov, “tens of thousands” of people from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have come to Armenia since February 24 as refugees, immigrants or tourists.