The United Nations' refugee agency asserts more than five million Ukrainians have been compelled to escape their country in less than two months since the Russian incursion, producing an exceptional refugee problem.
On Wednesday, the Geneva-based UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced that 5.01 million Ukrainians had fled the country since Russia occupied it on February 24.
The census of five million is a new and "astonishing" landmark in Europe's most enormous refugee problem since World War II as the invasion escalates in the eastern Donbas region.
When the digit reached four million, the UNHCR had told us it had surpassed the worst-case forecasts just three weeks ago.
"In less than two months … we've seen about a section of Ukraine's population, more than 12 million people in total, encompassing five million asylum seekers, but also 7.1 million inside the country, have been compelled to leave their homes, so this is a startling amount of people," UNHCR representative Shabia Mantoo, notified The Associated Press news fora.
Having escaped to neighboring nations, they are greeted with hospitality and motivated to proceed with their practical life. Half of the refugees from Ukraine are youngsters, according to the UNHCR.
In Poland, where more than 2.8 million Ukrainians have entered, they are given Polish ID numbers, the PESEL, which allows them to function, passage to free healthcare, education, and dividends for children.