More Than 4 Million Ukrainians Have Now Fled Country, UN Says

 March 30, 2022

• By RFE/RL

Ukrainian refugees leave the besieged city of Mariupol on March

The United Nations says more than four million Ukrainians have now left their country to flee Russia's unprovoked invasion.

According to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the total number of refugees as of midday on March 29 was 4.02 million, with just over half of that total making their way into Poland.

"Refugees from Ukraine are now 4 million, five weeks after the start of the Russian attack," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a tweet on March 30, adding that he had just arrived in Ukraine to discuss ways to increase support "to people affected and displaced by this senseless war."

The UNHCR initially estimated the total number of refugees created by the war could be up to four million. More than six million others are internally displaced inside Ukraine, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Prior to the invasion, which Russia launched on February 24, Ukraine had a population of 37 million in the regions under government control, excluding Russia-annexed Crimea and regions in the east that were controlled by Russia-backed separatists.

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-4-million-refugees-un/31777645.html