Kyiv: Heavy explosions rock Ukrainian capital
In little over two weeks, millions of Ukrainian refugees have been forced to flee as the brutal Russian invasion of their homeland continues.
The amount of people on the move constitutes “the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II,” UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Commissioner Filippo Grandi said Sunday.
While many residents in the central and eastern portions of the country have relocated to western Ukraine and away from the front lines, more than 2.5 million Ukrainians have left entirely following Russia’s invasion on February 24, according to the latest United Nations refugee estimates.
Most of those fleeing Ukraine are women and children. Ukrainian males aged 18 to 60 were banned from leaving after its national government enforced martial law.
Nations directly to the west and south of Ukraine have also accepted large numbers of refugees. Since the invasion, more than 245,000 Ukrainians have entered Hungary, while over 195,000 have fled to Slovakia, according to UNHCR data Friday.
Over 328,000 refugees have arrived in Moldova, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nicu Popescu said.
And more than 173,000 have since fled to neighboring Romania, according to UNHCR.
Across Europe, nations including Germany, Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden have each reported thousands of Ukrainians arriving.
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