Almost 15,000 Ukrainians are currently being hosted in Cyprus, a third of whom were living on the island when Russia invaded their country, Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said on Sunday.

Despite the high number of other refugees on the island, he repeated, Cyprus was swift to offer facilities to Ukrainians forced to flee.

He said a mechanism has already been established for the registration and a card is issued giving them free residence, food, education and health care for 12 months.

However, he said this was a high number and he hoped that the EU would provide some economic support for Cyprus.

He reiterated that it is a humanitarian issue as “we are talking about refugees who have absolutely nothing to do with illegal and irregular migration”.

Speaking in Chlorakas on Sunday morning, Nouris said the refugees remind the people of Cyprus of the atrocities carried out in 1974 by invading Turkish forces.

He said that as an occupied country, which for almost 48 years has been experiencing the consequences of the Turkish invasion, Cyprus can only strongly condemn the invasion of the Russians, which is contrary to every principle of law. This barbaric act of war violates, as he said, every notion of democracy, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine.