Following the blowing up of the Crimea Bridge and Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would ramp up its attacks on Ukraine. Illustrating that “payback’s a bitch,” European countries are getting hit with another surge in Ukrainian refugees as Russia continues to demolish the country’s energy infrastructure with bombing campaigns.

As Ukraine enters winter, millions of residents sticking it out in the country have been faced with sub-zero temperatures and have been forced to shelter in modified gymnasiums and other public shelters that have portable power generators. 

“I’m not afraid of the bombs,” Liza Cherniakova, a Ukrainian who fled in March, told The Wall Street Journal. “But without electricity, water, and heating you can’t work or have a normal life.”

8 Million Ukrainians Already in Europe

The war in Ukraine has already displaced about eight million Ukrainians and that number is expected to continue to grow. 

Europe has seen a 58 percent increase in asylum applications this year, which has been blamed largely on the end of COVID travel bans, the global economic decline, and the war in Ukraine. There were 578,875 asylum applications as of August.

About 1.1 million Ukrainians have applied for protection in Germany alone and that number could double this winter. Berlin is struggling to meet the demand and has been trying to process up to 25,000 asylum seekers each month. 

Manfred Weber, a German MP, told DW.com that Berlin is facing a “dramatic winter of refuge.”

“Germany is currently sleepwalking into a new migration crisis,” Weber said.

Germany is desperate to house these refugees and has erected tents on airfields that can house 1,000 people. 

A survey found that 53 percent of Germans are concerned that there are too many people arriving in the country, which was an 11 percent increase from September 2021, the BBC reported. The report said there have also been 65 arson attacks on these refugee shelters. 

TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal has reported extensively on the refugee crisis in Europe that has already been a strain on relationships between countries. (See “AS UKRAINE WAR RAGES, REFUGEE CRISIS IN EUROPE WORSENS” and “UKRAINIANS SWARMING EUROPE.”)

We’ve already seen Italy vote for a new prime minister who has spoken out against the drag refugees from Northern Africa and the Middle East had on Rome. 

We have long forecast that the surge in migrants into countries that are also struggling will lead to major wins for populist candidates who focus on the health of their own countries.

We said at the time that there will be growing anti-vax, anti-establishment, anti-immigration, anti-Eurozone movements spreading throughout Europe. This trend will greatly accelerate as economies decline, civil unrest grows and the refugee crisis worsens.