Ukraine: More than 4.2 million refugees

More than 4.2 million Ukrainian refugees have fled the country following the invasion of the country ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, according to figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today registered 4,215,047 Ukrainian refugees, 38,646 more than yesterday.

Europe has never seen such an influx of refugees since World War II.

About 90% of those who left Ukraine are women and children, as Ukrainian authorities do not allow men of conscription age to leave the country.

The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) says some 205,500 non-Ukrainians have also fled the country and sometimes find it difficult to get to their country of origin. The UN also estimates the number of internally displaced people at around 6.5 million.

In all, more than 10 million people, more than a quarter of the population, have fled their homes, either crossing the border to seek refuge in neighboring countries or fleeing elsewhere in Ukraine.

Prior to the conflict, Ukraine had more than 37 million inhabitants in Kyiv-controlled territories – which no longer include the Crimea (southern) annexed by Russia in 2014, nor the pro-Russian areas in the east. separatists from the same year.

According to Unicef, more than half of the country’s 7.5 million children are either internally displaced or refugees.

Poland

Poland alone receives more than half of all refugees who have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. Almost six out of 10 Ukrainian refugees have entered Poland.

As of February 24, 2,451,342 of these people have gone to Poland, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. And according to Unicef, about half are children.

In total, the Polish border guards have registered 2,481,000 people who have left the war-torn country until yesterday.

According to the Undersecretary of the Interior, 1.5 million of these people remain in Poland. Among them, 600,000 have already received a national identification number. This number is mainly used in relations with the Polish public services, health services, for obtaining a telephone number, for access to certain banking services, etc.

Romania

According to the UN refugee agency, 643,058 have gone to Romania by 3 April.

Moldova

In Moldova, a small country of 2.6 million people, the European Commission is encouraging Ukrainian refugees to continue their journey to settle in a European Union country that can better withstand the financial burden.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 394,740 people entered Moldova.

Most of them continued their journey, mainly to Romania. In any case, the World Food Program has begun distributing financial assistance to 100,000 refugees and host families in the country to help them better cope with the shock in one of Europe’s poorest countries.

Hungary

By April 3, Hungary had received 390,302 Ukrainians, according to the UNHCR.

Slovakia

As of April 3, a total of 301,405 people had arrived from Ukraine since the beginning of the war, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Russia

The number of refugees in Russia reached 350,632 on March 29, according to the latest available data.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also noted that between February 21 and 23, 113,000 people crossed into the territories of pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk in Russia.

Belarus

As of April 3, Belarus had received 15,281 people.

Method

The UNHCR clarifies that for the countries bordering Ukraine and belonging to the Schengen area (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia), the data provided by the UNHCR include those who have crossed the border and entered the country. The UNHCR estimates that “a large number of people continued on their way to other countries”.

In addition, the agency points out that people from neighboring countries who left Ukraine to return to their homeland are not taken into account.