In six days, 677,000 people fled from Ukraine to bordering countries: UNHCR

Afp and Europe Press

Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, March 2, 2022, p. 5

Geneva. More than 677,000 people have fled Ukraine to border countries since Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine began last Thursday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said yesterday, estimating the number of displaced people at one million. internal.

According to UNHCR head Fili-ppo Grandi, mounting figures available showed that some 677,000 people fled from Ukraine to neighboring countries in the past six days.

We look at how it could become Europe’s biggest refugee crisis of this centuryhe added.

These numbers include the territory controlled by Kiev, with more than 37 million inhabitants, but not the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, nor the two areas in the hands of pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country.

Russian authorities estimate that more than 100,000 people have crossed the border from the Donbas region.

Poland has taken in half of the refugees; that is, around 340 thousand people, according to Grandi.

In Poland, where 1.5 million Ukrainians already lived before the Russian offensive, people organize on social networks to raise money and medicine, as well as offering free housing, food, work or transportation to refugees.

Hungary took in more than 90,000 refugees, he said. About 60 thousand arrived on Moldovan territory.

In Romania, UNHCR counted some 40,000 migrants from Ukraine. Two camps have been set up, one in Sighetul and the other in Siret.

Some 50,000 Ukrainians have traveled to Slovakia since Thursday due to the threat of war, according to the agency.

The agency of the United Nations Organization (UN) also specified that tens of thousands of Ukrainians moved to other European nations, further away from the borders of their country, and that a million have internally displaced.

Meanwhile, thousands of students from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, trapped at Ukraine’s borders, denounce border guards preventing them from leaving the country.

UNHCR urged all countries to keep borders open to allow both Ukrainians and people of other nationalities to flee. There should be no discrimination against certain individuals or groups.

The first flights to the countries of the Maghreb and the Middle East were carried out yesterday to repatriate citizens residing in the former Soviet republic.

The UN has launched an emergency aid appeal for Kiev to raise $1.7 billion in funds to help victims of the Russian offensive.