An urgent airlift for Ukrainian refugees – how Putin’s cynical plot will fail

In Sweden, the government has understood the seriousness of the challenge and is talking about a scenario of taking in up to 200,000 people. [...] But to ensure that there is no chaos, that there are not hundreds of thousands of mothers and children (who constitute the bulk of the refugees) left out in the cold, that they are protected from exploitation, and that there is quick access to accommodation and to schooling, there needs to be a wider distribution. [...] With the entry into force of the EU Temporary Protection Directive, all those who flee to the EU have the right to be admitted anywhere in the EU. [...] Wanted: a mixture of Lucius Clay, the American general of the Berlin Airlift, and Ernst Reuter, the charismatic West Berlin mayor at the time, both protagonists of the first major political and humanitarian test in the last Cold War. [...] A public list on which all major commitments to the reception of refugees by cities, countries and regions are recorded every day: a balance sheet of solidarity, in the tradition of Jean Monnet, the father of European integration, and inspired by his efforts helping to coordinate the logistics of the allies during World War one and the reconstruction of France after World War two.