On February 24, Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian territory began and since then a mass exodus of citizens who have become refugees has been carried out. According to the reports presented by the United Nations (UN), the figure reached one million on Thursday.” In just seven days, one million people have fled Ukraine, uprooted by this senseless war,” said the official statement from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. In this sense, the report speaks of 1,050,000 people who escaped, which represents more than 2% of the country’s population, which reaches 44 million, according to the World Bank.The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, expressed himself in the official letter: “I have been working in refugee emergencies for almost 40 years and I have rarely seen an exodus as fast as this. Hour by hour, minute by minute, more people have to flee the terrifying reality of violence. There are countless people displaced within the country.”
Hour after hour, minute after minute, more people are fleeing the terrifying reality of violence. There are countless internally displaced persons. If the conflict is not immediately ended, millions more will be forced to flee Ukraine. https://t.co/Zd57OARtqe pic.twitter.com/JbO5mPqvpJ — UNHCR Americas (@ACNURamericas)
March 3, 2022
Poland is the main exit door and has already received about 550,000 Ukrainians, more than half of the total, although other countries on the continent have opened their doors for the entry of new Ukrainian citizens, especially women and children after the measure promoted by President Zelensky to prohibit the departure of men between 18 and 60 years old. Poland, where 1.5 million Ukrainians already lived before the Russian offensive, people organize on social media to raise money and medicines and also offer free housing, food, work or transportation and the agency said that “unless the conflict ends immediately, millions more people are likely to be forced to flee Ukraine.” Despite the extraordinary pace of displacement and the challenges, the response of governments and local communities to receive this one million refugees has been noteworthy. UNHCR staff have already been deployed across the region and we are expanding our protection and assistance programmes.”
On the other hand, it was remarked that although “international solidarity has been comforting and moving, nothing can replace the need to silence weapons, for dialogue and diplomacy to succeed. Peace is the only way to stop this tragedy,” they say. UNICEF also presented its latest reports and in this case it was estimated today that half a million children are among the refugees, he said that it is expected that these figures will continue to grow in the coming days and that humanitarian needs will multiply. Meanwhile, European interior ministers today reached a political agreement for the “historic decision” to grant temporary protection to refugees “fleeing war” in Ukraine, although they did not specify whether the status will reach those who do not have Ukrainian nationality.
