WARSAW: Filled with sadness and hopes of a victorious 2023, hundreds of Ukrainian refugees celebrated their first Christmas since fleeing the Russian invasion at a contemporary theater in Warsaw.
The celebrants at the Nowy Teatr, a former truck repair workshop, were among the 1.5 million Ukrainians who have settled in Poland since the war began — the highest number for any country.
Almost all were women as most Ukrainian men of recruitment age are not allowed to leave.
They spoke of the pain of marking the family holiday separated from husbands and sons.
“How can one feel?” said Svitlana Borysova, a hairdresser, before breaking down in tears.
Helped by friends, Borysova left Ukraine in the first days of the war with her two children, aged three and six, but had to leave her 21-year-old son behind.
Olena Sigitova, who came to the dinner with her 10-year-old daughter Daryna, said: “We feel sad but there are new friends, new opportunities.”
“At least we are not alone,” she said, wearing a paper crown typical of Polish Christmas celebrations for the Three Kings feast day.
The Christmas Eve meal was organized by the Ukrainian House in Warsaw — a non-governmental group that has helped refugees settle in Poland.
“The main goal is to give warmth, a sense of home,” Myroslava Keryk, head of the organization, told AFP.
The meal included popular Ukrainian dishes such as borscht beetroot soup as well as vareniki, a type of dumpling, and kutia — a wheat grain pudding.
Many wore brightly embroidered Ukrainian shirts.
About 500 people attended the dinner, which also featured typical Ukrainian carols and words of support for the soldiers defending their country.
“The most important thing for everyone this year is victory. We dream about it to be able to calm down and think about the future,” Keryk said.
Several of the women said childcare duties meant they had difficulty finding steady work but that their children were settling in and beginning to learn Polish in kindergartens and schools.
Sigitova, from Dnipro in eastern Ukraine, said she found it difficult to make time for Polish classes and was grateful to the host family who has put her and her daughter up since the beginning of the war.
“They said we can count on them as long as we need,” said Sigitova, whose husband is in the army.
Borysova said that during the first three months in Poland she barely left the house.
“I was so afraid, panicking,” she said.
Since then, she has been working as a hairdresser in people’s homes, unable to find more settled work because of having to look after her children.
But Natalia Golomsha, who attended the dinner with her eight-year-old son Marko, said she had managed to find a full-time job in a company that helps Ukrainian children study in Poland.
“I was helped a little by my friends, my contacts, but also by the desire and ability to adapt to the conditions,” she said.
Kateryna Krahmalova, a university researcher from Kyiv, said she had also found work and had the advantage of already speaking Polish.
“The main thing is that my loved ones are with me, so my home is where they are,” she said.
Refugees celebrate first Christmas since fleeing Ukraine
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Refugees celebrate first Christmas since fleeing Ukraine
- The Christmas Eve meal was organized by the Ukrainian House in Warsaw — a non-governmental group that has helped refugees settle in Poland
EU proposes suspending a duty-free sugar import scheme
- The IPR scheme allows companies to import sugar at zero duty and without limits
- White sugar imports under the IPR totalled 155,000 tons in 2024/25, up 5 percent year-on-year
PARIS: The European Commission proposed suspending a scheme allowing some duty-free sugar imports into the bloc, aiming to ease pressure on European producers facing falling prices and increased competition.
“I will propose a temporary suspension of the sugar inward processing regime to ease pressures on sugar producers,” European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen said on X late on Monday.
The IPR scheme allows companies to import sugar at zero duty and without limits, provided the sugar is refined or processed into food products and then re-exported outside the European Union.
Raw sugar imported into the EU under the IPR in the 2024/25 marketing year totalled 587,000 metric tons, up 19 percent on the previous year, of which 95 percent came from Brazil, European Commission data showed.
White sugar imports under the IPR totalled 155,000 tons in 2024/25, up 5 percent year-on-year, of which 43 percent came from Brazil, followed by Morocco, Egypt and Ukraine, the data showed.
European sugar beet producers have raised concerns about unfair competition and the potential impact of a trade deal with the Mercosur bloc of South American countries which includes a larger sugar quota.
Producers say imports have contributed to a supply glut that led EU sugar prices to slump to their lowest in at least three years.
The European sugar beet growers lobby CIBE expressed strong support for the decision, calling it timely and necessary.
“It will provide the right signal and some relief on a very depressed EU sugar market,” the group said on X.
