Photo: WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP via Getty
More than a million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia began itsattackseven days ago,according to the United Nations.
“In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of one million refugees from Ukraine to neighbouring countries,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi,said in a tweeton Wednesday. “For many millions more, inside Ukraine, it’s time for guns to fall silent, so that life-saving humanitarian assistance can be provided.”
An agency spokesperson said the situation “looks set to become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century” while commending Ukraine’s neighbors for keeping their borders open to Ukrainians fleeing Russian attacks.
“We have seen tremendous solidarity and hospitality from the countries receiving refugees, including from the authorities and local communities,“Shabia Mantoo said in a statement.
The UNHCR said an estimated 4 million people may flee Ukraine, whose total population is 44 million, in the coming weeks and months.
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Most are women, children and elderly. Men ages 18 to 60 are reportedly prohibited from leaving after PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyyasked Ukrainians to join the effort to defend their country.
“You don’t know where to go, where to run, who you have to call,” Liliya Marynchak, a 45-year-old teacher in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine,told PEOPLE recentlyof the moment her city was bombed.
“This is just panic,” she said.
“We will do everything to provide safe shelter in Poland for everyone who needs it,” the country’s interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski,said at the start of the conflict.
Ukrainian Refugees.WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP via Getty
The number of civilians killed in the attacks is difficult to determine accurately, but initial data shows a stark toll.
On Wednesday the U.N.’s High Commission for Human Rights published itscivilian casualty reportclaiming 227 were killed, including children, and 525 were injured but warned “real figures are considerably higher.”
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said Wednesday more than 2,000 Ukrainians have died “not counting our defenders,“CNN reports.
“Children, women and our defense forces are losing their lives every hour,” the statement added.
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Putin insists the country has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the interest of so-called “peacekeeping.”
“The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine,” PresidentJoe Bidensaid as the invasion began in force in February.
source: people.com
