14 million Ukrainians have fled Russia since invasion, United Nations says
The number of Ukrainians who have fled their homes since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year has reached 14 million, according to the latest United Nations data.
Addressing the U.N. Security Council this week, Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, described the mass exodus of refugees that began on Feb. 24, as “the fastest, largest displacement witnessed in decades.”
He warned that with “one of the world’s harshest winters” soon approaching, Ukrainians were about to face “extremely difficult circumstances,” and more aid was needed.
“Humanitarian organizations have dramatically scaled up their response, but much more must be done, starting with an end to this senseless war,” the U.N. refugee chief said. “ Unfortunately, we see the opposite, and the destruction caused by strikes at civilian infrastructure, which happens as we speak, is quickly making the humanitarian response look like a drop in the ocean of needs,” he added.
As of Nov. 1, 7,785,514 Ukrainian refugees had fled their country and were registered across Europe. Poland and Germany have received the most refugees — over a million each — followed by the Czech Republic, which has welcomed 455,731. Other countries that have received a significant number of Ukrainians include the United States, United Kingdom, France, Turkey, Italy and Spain, which have welcomed between 100,000 and 300,000 refugees each.
Neighboring countries such as Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Moldova, all of which are part of the U.N. Regional Refugee Response Plan, along with Poland, have also welcomed tens of thousands of refugees.
During his speech, Grandi praised the European Union’s response to the crisis and said that “we have seen an open, well managed and above all shared refugee response that has proven wrong many of the statements frequently repeated by some politicians: that Europe is full; that relocation is impossible; that there is no public support for refugees.”