War in Ukraine: mayors or private individuals, these French people who say they are ready to welcome refugees

For France to play its part in welcoming Ukrainians who are trying to take shelter from the fighting, initiatives are beginning to appear. The mayor of Lille Martine Aubry says she has already identified with the prefecture 250 places available for these refugees and will launch an appeal to Lille residents. The association of mayors of France calls for solidarity and several elected officials are already responding to the call. “We will find solutions, says Jean-Philippe Gautrais, Left Front mayor of Fontenay-sous-Bois. His town of Val-de-Marne is twinned with Brovary, near Kiev. We open the door to these men and women fleeing war. In Brovary, the first bombardments killed seven civilians. People fleeing these atrocities must be welcomed.”

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Lyon, Nancy, Saint-Etienne… The mayors of several large cities also say they are ready to welcome Ukrainian refugees. The environmental mayor of Besançon Anne Vignot responds present, as already last summer with Afghan refugees: “We received about fifty Afghans. Some stayed, others left.”

“We have an essential role: the essential solidarity and the moral obligation to welcome war refugees.”

Anne Vignot, mayor of Besançon

at franceinfo

Dominique, 67, lives in Fréjus in the Var. She contacted the Union of Ukrainians of France to offer an apartment until July. “I tell myself that we can’t stay idly by. I have a vacant apartment, I don’t see why I wouldn’t make it available. It’s a three-room apartment with two bedrooms and bunk beds, which can accommodate four or five people. There are a lot of people who have second homes here, I would like to encourage them to do the same.”

Like Dominique, a hundred people contacted the Union of Ukrainians in France to welcome refugees.