Politics

Ukraine crisis surpasses Syrian exodus with 6.8 million refugees

Geneva, May 31 (EFE).- Some 6.8 million people have fled Ukraine since Russian forces invaded the eastern European nation on February 24, outstripping the Syrian exodus, the United Nations reported Tuesday.

In addition, around 8 million people have been internally displaced in Ukraine, meaning around 15 million people, one-third of the country’s population, have been forced to leave their homes, the organization said.

The UN Refugee Agency reported that 2.2 million Ukrainians have returned to their country since the war broke out, but, in many cases, these are trips to visit relatives or check on their homes and, as such, the data does not indicate a steady flow of returns to the war-torn nation.

Poland is the country that has received the most Ukrainian refugees, with 3.6 million, while close to a million have arrived in Romania, with many first stopping in Moldova, and a further 970,000 have moved to Russia.

Although outflows from Ukraine have decreased in recent weeks and the massive waves of refugees recorded in February and March have ceased, there are still thousands of people leaving the country every day.

According to the UN, 6.6 million Syrian refugees have fled their country since 2011, seeking safety in at least 130 countries, meaning the Ukraine refugee crisis has now surpassed that figure.

The refugee crisis Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered is the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-45). EFE

abc/ch/eld

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