A controversy erupted this Friday in Portugal after press reports revealing that Ukrainian refugees were being welcomed by pro-Russian activists.
According to the weekly Expressoa prominent member of the Russian community established in Portugal and his wife, who works for the town hall of Setúbalparticipated in the reception of at least 160 Ukrainian refugees.
According to a Ukrainian refugee who testified for this newspaper, the couple notably asked her where the members of her family who remained in Ukraine were after the invasion launched by Moscow on February 24. Faced with the outcry, the town hall of Setubal reacted in a press release announcing that this Russian official would be removed from the teams providing reception for Ukrainian refugees.
“Pro-Russian organizations” infiltrated into refugee reception structures
In early April, the Ukrainian ambassador to Lisbon, Inna Ohnivets, said in an interview with CNN Portugal that “pro-Russian organizations” had infiltrated the reception structures for refugees.
“As soon as refugees started arriving in Portugal in March, we were alerted that some had been received by pro-Russian elements posing as members of international or even Ukrainian organizations,” said the President of the Association of Ukrainians in Portugal, Pavlo Sadoka. “It’s the same all over Europe,” he assured the Lusa agency after talking with similar associations in other countries.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Portugal has welcomed more than 33,000 Ukrainian refugees, doubling the size of this immigrant community, which has become the second largest in the country.