PARIS (Reuters) - Some 30,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in France, with half of them travelling through the country to other places such as Spain, French housing minister Emmanuelle Wargon said Sunday.

       Wargon told Franceinfo radio the government was preparing to welcome 100,000 people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

       France has been granting temporary European Union stay permits to Ukrainian refugees, which allows them to have access to schools and to work in the country.

       Before the war, the Ukrainian community in France numbered 40,000.

       (Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Mimosa Spencer; Editing by Edmund Blair)