Cindy McCain: Polish people have done everything they could to care for Ukrainian refugees

Cindy McCain spoke to TVN24 reporter Marcin Kwaśny in the eastern city of Rzeszów. She told him about her visit at the reception point for refugees in Korczowa, in the Podkarpacie region.

"I was not only astounded and so pleasantly surprised at the organisation and the kindness that the refugees are treated, the cleanliness of the place. The Polish people have gone out of their way to make sure that the Ukrainian refugees are well, well, well cared for," she said.

The ambassador also said that at the reception point she had met people from other countries, including the United States, Italy, and Israel. "There is quite a collection of people down there, all trying to do what they can to help Polish people to deal with this crisis."

McCain said that less refugees have been fleeing Ukraine in recent days. "Right now the flow has maybe not stalled, but it slowed quite a bit. But again, we a million people stacked up in Lviv right now, and it would only take one spark for that to erupt and for those people to cross the border again," she argued.

"There is one way we could stop this. One person can stop this, and it's Putin. He can stop the bombing and he can pull out and give Ukraine back to Ukrainian people," she said.

"All of us, all of these organisations are collectively committed to the long-term here. Of course I will speak on behalf of my own government. We're well committed into this. President Biden has just committed another billion dollars to the humanitarian effort," she added.

Asked about the humanitarian support, the ambassador said that "you're going to see it in many different forms".

"There's a food crisis looming. Ukraine was always the bread basket not only for Europe, but also for the rest of the world. So now we're going to have to deal with supplementing what would normally would normally come out of Ukraine in areas of the world that can't survive without supplemental food," she explained.

Asked if humanitarian organisations could do more to help bombed Ukrainian cities, such as Mariupol, McCain said that "there's always room for more". "But let me say: sanctions are working," she added.

"Our job now is to make sure that the humanitarian corridors stay open," the ambassador said, adding that in order to do that, the United Nations should ensure deliveries of food and water supplies. "We got a real problem here, but as you know, the world has collectively banded together to stop this. And I believe we can."

Cindy McCain was also asked about her late husband John, U.S. senator and war hero. "My husband always called honest shots with regard to Putin and he called it like it was. He believed that Putin could have done something like this," she said.

Asked if she thought the Russian president was a war criminal, she replied: "Yes, absolutely".

"For instance, yesterday he bombed a Red Cross installation in the east. I mean who does that?" - she added.