Foreign Ministry to bus Israelis fleeing Ukraine from Lviv to Polish border

Officials say transportation will leave western Ukrainian city on Wednesday afternoon; some 3,000 Israelis still in Ukraine, around half of whom don’t want to leave

By Judah Ari Gross 2 March 2022, 1:24 pm

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Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.

Ukrainians prepare to board a bus to Poland at Lviv bus main station, western Ukraine, March 1, 2022 (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it was organizing transportation for Israelis and their families from the western Ukraine city of Lviv to the Polish border later in the day.

“Representatives from the Foreign Ministry will be at the border crossing to help you,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the buses will leave from Gazova 36 in Lviv and that people must register in advance by calling +380-67-911-1764.

There are around 3,000 Israelis still in Ukraine, with assessments suggesting approximately half of them are not interested in leaving, according to a spokesperson for Israel’s Ukrainian Embassy, now based in Przemysl, across the border in Poland.

The embassy said some 3,000 Israeli citizens have left Ukraine since the Russian invasion began last Thursday.

Israel urged its citizens for weeks to leave the country, but many did not heed the warnings.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid held a situational assessment on Wednesday, after which it was announced that services at the border would be widened to provide initial assistance with food and medicine for Israelis fleeing Ukraine, in addition to consular services assistance.

“The reception stations at the border crossings are a new and important task. The citizens arrive after days and hours on the road, and they need us,” Lapid said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid (3rd left) at a situational assessment meeting on Ukraine, March 2, 2022 (Foreign Ministry)

The Israelis are leaving Ukraine via chaotic border crossings amid an exodus of refugees that is rapidly growing in the eastern countries of the European Union, with more than 675,000 people fleeing to neighboring countries since the Russian invasion began — a number that will only grow, according to the UN refugee agency.

Shabia Mantoo, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said Tuesday that “at this rate, the situation looks set to become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century.”

Agencies and Lazar Berman contributed to this report.