Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1463105
14 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 30 MARCH 2022 NEWS UKRAINE CONFLICT THE European Union is set- ting up centres on its borders to Ukraine to receive and distribute refugees in need of healthcare to member states best placed for treating them, the EU health commissioner said on Tuesday. "We are working closely with Member States and (the World Health Organization's Europe office) to set up triage hubs di- rectly at the border for patients in the most affected Member States to speed up the trans- fers," Commissioner Stella Kyr- iakides said ahead of a meeting of EU health ministers on Tues- day. United Nations data showed a week ago that more than 3.5 million people have fled abroad from Russia's attacks on Ukraine, leaving Eastern Europe scrambling to provide them with care. read more Kyriakides said on Tuesday al- most 4 million Ukrainians have left their homeland. She added a plan unveiled two weeks ago to buy and distribute vaccines against measles, polio, tuberculosis and COVID-19 to immunise Ukrainian refugees and children in particular was now bearing fruit. read more Kyriakides said the European Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) had secured 200,000 diphtheria and tetanus vaccine donations from drugmaker Sanofi (SASY. PA) for Ukraine and another around 70,000 vaccines would go to the Czech Republic, Slo- vakia and Moldova via the EU's Civil Protection Mechanism. EU sets up distribution centres on Ukraine border for refugees needing care Emirates says Russians also have right to travel despite Ukraine Ukrainian refugees board a train bound to Krakow, Poland, at Przemysl Glowny train station EMIRATES President Tim Clark said the Russian people have every right to continue traveling regardless of sanctions on the economy, defending the Gulf carrier's maintenance of regular services despite the invasion of Ukraine. Emirates will carry on operat- ing to Russia for as long as it is told to do so by its owner, the government of Dubai, Clark told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Tuesday. The airline currently serves Mos- cow twice daily and St. Peters- burg once a day, linking the cit- ies with its vast global network via a stop in the Gulf state. "These sanctions are not aimed at the Russian people," Clark said. "The Russian peo- ple are just as affected by what's been going on in Ukraine as everyone else, I suspect." Passenger loads on the flights are "fairly healthy," the exec- utive said, including custom- ers traveling for humanitarian reasons, staff from non-profits, diplomats and some tourists. Cargo space is in very high de- mand, he said. With Russian airlines and many foreign carriers subject to reciprocal airspace bans and other curbs that have greatly curtailed flights, Emirates pro- vides one of the few remain- ing major arteries linking the country with the rest of the world. Clarke said his airline is also free to overfly Russia, and does so on routes to the U.S. west coast. Emirates is currently prof- itable and cash positive and is "managing quite well" with the surge in jet-fuel expenses, primarily by increasing fares, Clark said. "We were facing higher oil prices prior to the conflict and we are dealing with those," he said. "Unfortunately that means that prices have to rise to cover the fuel-cost increases." Clark said that demand is continuing to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. Chi- na's continuing curbs on for- eign travel remain and issue, he said, but markets including Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indo- nesia are all improving.