Twenty-two Taiwanese have been evacuated from Ukraine to Poland and Slovakia after fleeing the eastern European country following Russia’s invasion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Eighteen Taiwanese and their spouses arrived in Poland on a bus arranged by the government 46 hours after fleeing the Ukranian capital, Kyiv, the ministry said.
The bus cleared Ukraine-Poland border inspections at about 8pm on Saturday, Taiwan time, before heading to Lublin, where they were greeted by Representative to Poland Bob Chen (陳龍錦) and other diplomats, the ministry said in a news release.
Photo courtesy of Tsai Tsung-yen
They were given Taiwanese food and bubble tea after their ordeal, it added.
After a brief rest, the bus took them to Warsaw, where the evacuees are to decide whether to return to Taiwan or head elsewhere, the ministry said.
In a separate evacuation mission, the ministry said four Taiwanese arrived in Slovakia from Ukraine yesterday morning.
Photo courtesy of Tsai Tsung-yen
The ministry thanked the Polish and Slovakian governments for facilitating the evacuation missions.
Fourteen Taiwanese remain in Ukraine, including seven in Kyiv, the ministry said.
It said that it would keep in contact with them and offer help if they choose to leave the country.
The bus that arrived in Poland on Saturday left just hours after Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, following weeks of escalating tensions.
It first traveled to Lviv, about 500km from Kyiv near the Polish border.
The journey took much longer than expected, due to the traffic jams caused by thousands of people fleeing the capital and eastern Ukraine, where several cities are under attack, the ministry said.
More than 120,000 people have fled Ukraine since the assault began, a UN official told CNN, and there are long lines at some border crossings.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
RSS