Lithuania's Strong Together closes center in Poland as Ukrainian refugee inflow drops

VILNIUS – Stiprus Kartu (Strong Together), a Lithuanian aid initiative aimed to help Ukrainians fleeing the war in their country, is closing its center on the Polish-Ukrainian border on Thursday as the flow of war refugees has gone down.

From now on, the organization's national volunteer coordination center will start helping Ukrainians who decide to go back to their country, the organization said.

During the peak period, Stiprus Kartu minibuses used to run along the Polish-Ukrainian border to pick up war refugees who wanted to take refuge in Lithuania. On the busiest days, from mid-March to mid-April, the initiative used to receive around 600 requests for help every day.

Stiprus Kartu will continue organizing and funding a regular bus service from Lviv, looking new accommodation for war refugees, and organizing and funding children's summer camps for five hundred war refugee children in Lithuania, in cooperation with scouts and other partners.

UN figures show more than 6 million people have fled Ukraine during the war and more than 8 million others were forced to leave their homes but stayed in the country.