EU Official: Russia Hoping to Flood EU with Ukraine Refugees

The European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Immigration, Ylva Johansson, has warned that Russia may be trying to create an influx of refugees into the European Union by bombing critical infrastructure across Ukraine.

Commissioner Johansson stated that Russia’s recent attacks on infrastructure, including the country’s electrical grid and water systems, may be motivated by a desire from President Vladimir Putin to create a new wave of refugees in the European Union.

“I do not trust Putin and [Belarusian president Alexander] Lukashenko for a moment. We must be prepared for the fact that they are prepared to use whatever means there may be,” Johansson told Finnish broadcaster Yle.

Johansson said that European Union member-states must be prepared to take in new refugees from Ukraine and that in the months since the Russian invasion began the EU has proven it can take in millions of Ukrainians who fled their country.

Many EU border states with Russia and Belarus have built fences against non-Ukrainian migrants, including Poland and Lithuania, which credited its border fence and cold weather conditions for a reduction in illegal immigration numbers this week.

“[EU members] are obliged to secure the EU’s external borders. The Commission supports them in this,” Commissioner Johansson said, and praised the Finnish border service, claiming the border guard is among the best in the European Union.

Finland, which shares a large border with Russia, could build its own border fence in the near future, a policy supported by the country’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin. Such a fence would likely be only a partial fence at key points along the Russian frontier.

Earlier this year, Charly Salonius-Pasternak, a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, made a similar warning to Johansson, saying there was a risk of Russia using migrants in a form of hybrid warfare, largely in reaction to Finland wishing to join the NATO alliance.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.