The United Nations says that more than 2.3 million refugees have now left Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion last month, with almost 161,7000 fleeing in the past 24 hours.
The head of the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, said in a statement on March 10 that the agency needed about $500 million for its emergency work in Ukraine and neighboring countries, of which almost $300 million has been received so far, two-thirds of which came from private donations.
“This is unprecedented: a sign of extraordinary solidarity with the people of Ukraine,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said.
Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration said that as of March 9, 109,000 third-country nationals were among those to have fled Ukraine, including people from Ecuador, Ghana, Lebanon, and Tunisia.
Most Ukrainian refugees have crossed into Poland, where their number now stands at more than 1.42 million.
Poland’s border guards said on Twitter on March 10 that some 117,600 people crossed the border the previous day. However, there are now signs that the exodus has peaked and the number of daily crossings is going down.
Some 214,160 refugees are now in Hungary, 9 percent of the total who have fled Ukraine.
The country has five border crossings with Ukraine and several border towns, and has turned public buildings into relief centers, where Hungarian civilians are offering food or assistance.
Some 165,000 refugees arrived in Slovakia, 84,600 are now in Romania, and almost 83,000 refugees stopped in Moldova, although many thousands more have passed through the non-EU state on their way to other countries.
The UNHCR says the number of refugees since the invasion who are now in Russia is more than 97,000.
An additional 96,000 people moved to Russia from the areas under the control of the Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine between February 18 and 23, in the days before the Russian invasion, according to the UNHCR.
Source: Government of South Africa