Ukraine: Almost 3 million have fled war, UN says, now basing aid plans on 4 million
- About 2.95 million people have fled Ukraine, UNHCR data shows; agency assuming there’ll be 4 million refugees but says figure is likely to increase
- Those fleeing early on often had resources, contacts; now many refugees including elderly, disabled, are leaving in a hurry and are ‘more vulnerable’
Nearly three weeks into the war, the number of Ukrainians fleeing abroad approached 3 million on Tuesday, the United Nations said, as people escaped fighting and Russian bombardment.
About 2.95 million people have so far left Ukraine, data from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) showed. It is basing its aid plans on 4 million refugees but has said the figure is likely to increase.
After Sunday’s Russian strike on the Yavoriv military base near Lviv in western Ukraine, some people in the area have now joined the refugee flow across the border.
It is complicated to avoid bombs with a small child
“We left Kharkiv for Kirovohrad (central Ukraine),” she said at the railway station of Przemysl, the nearest town to Poland’s busiest border crossing with Ukraine. “We wanted to stay there. We did not want to go abroad.”
“Then they started striking Kirovohrad, they started striking Lviv and it is complicated to avoid bombs with a small child,” she said, adding that her husband had stayed in Ukraine.
In Romania, Ukrainian women and children, some clutching teddy bears, continued to stream through the Siret border crossing where temperatures dropped to -2 degrees Celsius (28 degrees Fahrenheit) overnight.
Pulling suitcases and carrying backpacks, they were met by Romanian firefighters and volunteers, who carried their belongings to buses transporting them onwards.
