The Belgian royal family said they would accept three Ukrainian families in two of their homes
- King Philip and Queen Mathilde have decided to open two of their houses, owned by the Belgian Royal Foundation, for Ukrainian refugees.
- The two houses are located in Brussels and in the southern region of Wallonia.
- The move came after King Philip met with Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, at the registration center at the Brussels Exhibition Centre.
The Belgian royal family will host three Ukrainian families fleeing a war-torn home at two of their homes in Belgium.
King Philip and Queen Mathilde have decided to open two of their houses, owned by the Belgian Royal Foundation, for Ukrainian refugees.
Two houses are located in Brussels and in the southern region of Wallonia, according to the BBC.
The move came after King Philip met with Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, at the registration center at the Brussels Exhibition Centre.
The Belgian royal family will host three Ukrainian families fleeing a war-torn home at two of their homes in Belgium. The move came after King Philip met Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, at the registration center at the Brussels Exhibition Center (pictured).
King Philippe and Queen Mathilde (pictured together in 2019 in South Korea) have decided to open two of their houses, owned by the Belgian Royal Foundation, to Ukrainian refugees.
King Philip visited the reception center for Ukrainian refugees at the Immigration Service in Brussels on Wednesday
A spokesman for the Royal Palace said the king was moved by the experience and announced a decision to host Ukrainian families shortly thereafter.
The Belgian royal family has hosted the most vulnerable people in their royal homes in the past.
Last year they housed people who lost their homes in Belgium’s worst flooding in homes owned by the Royal Foundation.
More than three million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on February 24. More than half left for Poland and over 10,000 registered in Belgium where they were granted international protection.
People fleeing the war in Ukraine wait at a train station in Przemysl, southeastern Poland, on Thursday.
Smoke and flames rise from a fire that broke out after Russian missiles hit warehouses in the Svyatoshinsky district of Kyiv, Ukraine on Thursday
Speaking about the homes where the Ukrainian refugees will be housed by the royal family, Jan Smets, President of the Royal Foundation, told RTBF: “This is housing, the original purpose of which was to provide social agencies with accommodation for people with low incomes, a mission that matches what we hope reach at the Royal Trust”.
He added that now this housing will be used to accommodate Ukrainian families fleeing the war, where thousands of people died.
In Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, at least 53 people have been taken to morgues in the past 24 hours, and at least 15 people died when Russian artillery destroyed a school and community center in Merefa.
Putin faced new war crimes charges on Wednesday after a video of the attack, later confirmed by Ukraine’s prosecutor general, showed at least 10 civilians were shot dead while queuing for bread outside Chernihiv.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine confirmed in a statement the attack by Russian security forces, who “fired at people standing in line for bread near a grocery store.” While new drone footage has surfaced, last week Russian soldiers executed a lone Ukrainian citizen as he raised his hands to surrender on a highway west of Kyiv.
Russian rockets also fired at a convoy of people fleeing Mariupol, killing civilians, including children, on Wednesday after earlier strikes hit a nearby IDP hub. It is not yet known how many people died as a result of the shelling, but footage from the scene shows a burned-out car with a broken door.
Meanwhile, Zakharova warned today that providing Ukraine with air defense systems, as requested by the President of Ukraine in the US Congress on Wednesday, would be a destabilizing factor that “definitely will not bring peace to Ukraine” and “may have much more dangerous consequences.”