Ten million people, more than a quarter of Ukraine’s population, have now fled their homes due to Russia’s “devastating” war, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Sunday.
“The war in Ukraine is so devastating that 10 million people have fled, either internally displaced or refugees abroad,” Grandi said on Twitter.
“Among the responsibilities of those who wage war, everywhere in the world, is the suffering inflicted on civilians who are forced to flee their homes,” he added.
The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Sunday that 3,389,044 Ukrainians have left the country since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, and that 60,352 others have taken the road of exodus. .
Around 90% of those who fled are women and children. Men between the ages of 18 and 60 can be called up and cannot leave.
Unicef, the United Nations children’s agency, said more than 1.5 million children are among those who have fled abroad, and warned that the risks of trafficking and exploitation of human beings they face are “real and growing”.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) also reported that as of Wednesday, 162,000 third-country nationals have fled Ukraine to neighboring states.
Millions more have left their homes but remain within Ukraine’s borders. According to UN agencies and related agencies, some 6.48 million people are internally displaced in Ukraine as of Wednesday, following an investigation by IOM.
UNHCR initially estimated that up to four million people could leave Ukraine.
Before the conflict, Ukraine had a population of 37 million in areas under government control, excluding the Russian annexed Crimea and the pro-Russian breakaway areas in the east.