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Women with their children are crossing the Ukrainian border into Poland, at Medyka border crossing on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Ukraine crisis: UN says more than 2 million people have fled Ukraine war as refugees

  • The UN said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was fuelling Europe’s fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II
  • By comparison the Balkan wars in Bosnia and Kosovo saw two to three million refugees over an eight-year period
Ukraine
More than two million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion less than two weeks ago, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

“Today the outflow of refugees from Ukraine reaches two million people,” UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said in a tweet.

Since February 24, 2,011,312 people have fled the war-ravaged country into neighbouring countries, said the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

Poland alone has received nearly half of all those fleeing Ukraine, with Tuesday’s figures showing that 1.2 million had crossed into the country in the past 13 days.
Refugees wait to enter a train to reach Romania, one of the stages of the long exodus from Ukraine, at the railway station of Chisinau, Moldova on Tuesday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Hungary meanwhile has taken in nearly 191,350 people, Slovakia 140,745 and Russia itself has seen 99,300 people cross over from Ukraine, the data showed.

Moldova and Romania had each received over 82,000 refugees each, according to data gathered on Sunday, while more than 210,000 people who have fled into neighbouring countries have already moved on to other European nations, UNHCR found.

On Sunday, Grandi said the war in Ukraine was fuelling Europe’s fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II.

UN: 1.5 million flee Ukraine in ‘fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since WWII’

“It doesn’t stop,” he told a press conference in Oslo earlier on Tuesday following a visit to Moldova, Poland and Romania.

For comparison, Grandi said the Balkan wars in Bosnia and Kosovo saw “maybe two to three million people, but over a period of eight years.”

While other parts of the “world have seen this,” Grandi added, “in Europe it’s the first time since the Second World War,” he reiterated.

After several failed attempts, Russia promised to open humanitarian corridors on Tuesday to allow civilians to flee the Ukrainian cities that have come under artillery fire.

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