The Czech Republic estimates the cost of hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine to be around €2 billion ($2.17 billion) this year alone, Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura said on Friday, according to the CTK news agency.
Negotiations on further aid needed to be held with the European Commission, Stanjura said as EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson arrived in Prague where she toured a reception centre with Interior Minister Vít Rakušan and Prague Mayor Zdeněk Hřib.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine almost 272,000 refugees have been issued with Czech residence permits. The authorities estimate the total number of Ukrainian refugees in the country at more than 300,000.
