A group of 20 evacuees from Ukraine arrived in Japan from Poland on Tuesday aboard a Japanese government plane, an exceptional move that comes as people fleeing Ukraine have been facing skyrocketing airfares in the wake of Russia's invasion.

Five men and 15 women, aged 6 to 66, had been hoping to travel to Japan but were unable to secure their own means of transportation. The government's support to them includes housing, employment and language lessons.

"Now I'm in a secure environment but sometimes things in Kyiv flash across my mind, making me uneasy," one of the evacuees, 34-year-old Olga Ruban, said. She fled to Poland late last month, leaving her parents in the Ukrainian capital.

A government plane carrying Ukrainian evacuees to Japan arrives at Haneda airport in Tokyo on April 5, 2022. (Kyodo)

Having learned kendo, a Japanese wooden sword fighting discipline, Ruban visited Japan for a tournament in 2018. She expressed hope that "the war ends as soon as possible, Ukraine returns to normal, and people live in peace."

Victoria Romashova, 37, arrived at Tokyo's Haneda airport with her 13-year-old son.

"I will tell that a war is really awful," she told reporters, adding that she wants Japanese people to know how the real situations in Ukraine are different from what they see through the internet.

The pair soon left Tokyo for Osaka Prefecture where her mother lives with her Japanese husband.

The 20 evacuees arrived in Japan shortly after Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi returned from his trip to Poland as a special envoy of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Japan is trying to show its commitment to the global efforts to help Ukraine and Poland, which has seen the biggest refugee influx from Ukraine following the Russian invasion.

Like other evacuees who have already entered Japan, the 20 evacuees will have short-term residency for 90 days, and will be permitted to later change their visas to a "designated activities" status for one year under which they are permitted to work, according to the Immigration Services Agency of Japan.

Those who do not have guarantors in Japan such as relatives or acquaintances are expected to stay at hotels arranged by the government until municipalities or businesses provide new places to stay.

As of Monday, 321 companies, 147 municipalities and 17 nongovernmental or nonprofit organizations have offered to provide support, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference.

They will also receive financial aid for living expenses, medical care and vocational training, as well as language assistance such as arrangement of an interpreter.

On Monday, Hayashi vowed to accept "as many (Ukrainians) as possible" from a humanitarian perspective when he held talks with his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau in Warsaw, before meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi (L) and his Polish counterpart Zbigniew Rau hold a joint press conference in Warsaw on April 4, 2022. (Pool photo) (Kyodo) ==Kyodo

To see what aid Tokyo should provide to Ukrainian evacuees, Hayashi also visited a border checkpoint and a refugee reception center in Medyka and Japan's temporary liaison office in Rzeszow, both in southeastern Poland, during his stay in the country.

In a related move, Japan has decided to dispatch four officials to Moldova, another nation sharing a border with Ukraine, for a week from Tuesday to explore the possibility of a human resource contribution in the health and medical services sector.

As of Sunday, 4.21 million refugees had fled Ukraine since the start of the conflict, including 2.45 million to Poland and about 395,000 to Moldova, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, Japan had accepted 404 evacuees from Ukraine as of Sunday, according to the Japanese government.


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Japan's Hayashi to take 20 Ukraine evacuees to Japan from Poland