Russia attacks Ukraine: 4M refugees have fled Ukraine, UN agency says
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By Michelle Ewing, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
More than 4 million people have fled Ukraine since Russian troops invaded the country last month, the United Nations’ refugee agency announced Wednesday.
According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, 4,019,287 refugees left Ukraine from Feb. 24 through Tuesday. Nearly 2.34 million – about 58% – of those people fled to neighboring Poland, the agency said.
The data also showed that about 690,000 Ukrainian refugees fled to Romania, 387,000 to Moldova, 365,000 to Hungary, 351,000 to Russia, 281,000 to Slovakia and 11,000 to Belarus, according to the agency’s website.
“We are confronted with the realities of a massive humanitarian crisis that is growing by the second,” the agency tweeted Wednesday, adding that 6.5 million people remain displaced inside Ukraine. About 13 million are “stranded in affected areas or unable to leave,” the tweet read.
High Commissioner Filippo Grandi tweeted Wednesday that he has arrived in Ukraine.
“In Lviv, I will discuss with the authorities, the U.N. and other partners ways to increase our support to people affected and displaced by this senseless war,” he wrote.
The Ukrainian refugee crisis is Europe’s largest since World War II, according to The Associated Press.
Photos: 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine, UN agency says People who have fled the war in Ukraine gather outside a temporary refugee shelter that was formerly an abandoned TESCO supermarket after being transported from the Polish Ukrainian border on March 29, 2022, in Przemysl Poland. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Photos: 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine, UN agency says Refugees wait in a queue, after fleeing the war from neighboring Ukraine at the border crossing in Medyka, southeastern Poland, on Tuesday, March 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Photos: 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine, UN agency says A soldier comforts Larysa Kolesnyk, 82, after being evacuated from Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Photos: 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine, UN agency says Inna Lazareva (right) hugs her sister, Alina Koval, goodbye before boarding a bus to Poland from the main train station on March 29, 2022, in Lviv, Ukraine. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Photos: 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine, UN agency says People who fled the war in Ukraine line up to pick goods inside the train station on March 29, 2022, in Krakow, Poland. (Omar Marques/Getty Images)
Photos: 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine, UN agency says Marta, who fled the war in Ukraine, comforts one of her dogs as the other rests inside a pet backpack next to a child on March 29, 2022, in Krakow, Poland. (Omar Marques/Getty Images)
Photos: 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine, UN agency says People prepare to make the journey to Poland by bus from the main train station on March 29, 2022, in Lviv, Ukraine. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Photos: 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine, UN agency says Ukrainian refugee children from the city of Buchach volunteer at Ukrainian Cultural Centre Dnipro sorting out humanitarian aid for compatriots in the UK and Ukraine on March 29, 2022, in Manchester, England. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Photos: 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine, UN agency says Residents line up to collect food aid at a humanitarian aid station on March 29, 2022, in Trostyanets, Ukraine. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Photos: 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine, UN agency says People who fled the war in Ukraine arrive by bus on March 29, 2022, in Krakow, Poland. (Omar Marques/Getty Images)