Chisinau (dpa) – German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Saturday that Germany was working with international partners to establish an airlift for Ukrainian refugees who had reached Moldova.

After a meeting with her Moldovan counterpart, Nicu Popescu, in Chisinau, Baerbock said that the German government would bring 2,500 Ukrainian refugees from Moldova directly to Germany as a first step.

A “green corridor” with buses travelling via Romania was among the initiatives, she said, as well as flights directly from Chisinau or via neighbouring countries.

The EU has provided emergency aid of €5 million ($5.5 million) for Moldova, and the German government has provided an additional €3 million, Baerbock said.

According to Popescu, Moldova has taken in a total of about 300,000 people from Ukraine, of whom more than 100,000 are still in the country. Moldova is one of the poorest countries in Europe.

The total number of people who have fled Ukraine since the multi-pronged attack began on February 24 has exceeded 2.5 million, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in an update on Friday.

Of these, 122,837 have arrived in Germany, the German Ministry of the Interior announced on Saturday.

This number, however, could be even higher, since there are no fixed controls on internal borders.

Around 100,000 refugees from Ukraine are expected to take advantage of the free onward travel offer within Germany and to neighbouring countries by the end of the weekend since the campaign was launched on March 1.

The refugees are mainly travelling to German regions, such as Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Bremen, according to German railway company Deutsche Bahn on Saturday.

Many refugees also used the offer to travel onwards to France, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

“We are all extraordinarily moved by the tragic news and dramatic images from Ukraine,” Deutsche Bahn boss Richard Lutz said during a visit to Korczowa on the Polish-Ukrainian border.

Refugees from Ukraine can use international long-distance trains to travel from Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic to Germany without a ticket.

Poland, meanwhile, has welcomed some 1.6 million refugees so far, the
Polish border authorities said on Saturday.

Nine special trains are to take refugees from Poland to Germany on each day of the weekend, in addition to the eight regular trains that travel daily between the countries, Polish Deputy Minister of the Interior Pawel Szefernaker said on Saturday.

He said this was a “pilot project” to see how the offer would be used by refugees who want to travel on to Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands or other western countries.

There are also two special trains from Poland to the Czech Republic this weekend in addition to the 10 regular trains, according to the ministry.

But the Czech Republic is also hitting its limits with the number of refugees it can absorb. Its government filed an official appeal for assistance to the European Union due to the number of Ukrainian refugees who have arrived there fleeing Russia’s invasion.

The government is requesting a shipment of containers so it can house 50,000 people, said fire services spokesperson Pavla Jakoubkova. “Every space that gets freed up is immediately filled again.”

If that pace continues, new arrivals will have to be housed in gymnasiums or tent camps. So far, the Czech Republic has been able to house them in hotels or flats.

Authorities estimate about 200,000 refugees have come to the Czech Republic since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. Half of the arrivals are children. About 133,000 have received permission to stay in the country.