Some 13 million people in Ukraine they are trapped in areas affected by hostilities and unable to escape due to, among other things, the destruction of highways and other roads, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said today.
These people “cannot leave due to the destruction of the roads, blockades or the lack of information on where to go to find security and help,” the UNHCR representative in Lviv explained in a videoconference from Lviv. UkraineKarolina Lindholm.
This population, once it manages to escape from the places where it is found, will increase the number of displaced people and Ukrainian refugees.
The Russian invasion has caused the forced displacement of 6.5 million people and the flight of 3.7 million refugees from the country in less than thirty days, according to the latest UNHCR data.
Lindholm said that although international aid has arrived massively, it is the local authorities “who are leading the humanitarian response from the first minute and they are doing it in an extraordinary way.”
To deal with the scale of internal displacement, Lindholm said he is working with local officials to identify buildings and other facilities that could be converted into collective reception centers.
“Millions of people will need support to have a place to live in the medium and long term,” anticipated the agency’s representative.
“It’s been a month since all this started and now it’s a crisis that evolves second by second,” he added.
