Unia Europejska wobec kryzysu uchodźczego i humanitarnego na Ukrainie w latach 2022-2023. Dynamika – instrumenty prawne, instytucjonalne i pomocowe

The aim of the article is to analyze the position of the European Union institutions and EU Member States towards the refugee and humanitarian crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The analysis is limited to the legal status as of April 3, 2023. Two research hypotheses are presented by the author. The first one is based on the premise that, compared to the migration crisis of 2015-2016, the EU and its Member States fared much better in dealing with the refugee and humanitarian crisis caused by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The reason for this is that this time volunteers, national and local non-governmental organizations, civil society entities of the countries receiving refugees, but most importantly, the entire Polish society provided shelter to the Ukrainian population fleeing the war, with the Polish people even allowing Ukrainian refugees into their own homes. The second research hypothesis postulates that the already existing, but so far underestimated or inactive EU aid instruments, such as: the mechanism of temporary protection for refugees, the mechanism of integrated crisis response at the political level and the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, played a crucial role in coping with the massive influx of Ukrainian refugees. As a result, the author formulates the following research questions: 1. Which EU Member States have helped Ukrainian refugees the most, and why? 2. What was the impact of the highly effective EU legislative, institutional and aid tools indicated above? 3.What was the scale of the economic, financial and humanitarian assistance of the EU and its Member States to Ukraine?