Almost 5 million Ukrainians have become refugees in European countries
"The war in Ukraine has caused one of the largest migration crises in the world," says a statement by UNHCR (the United Nations agency responsible for the protection and support of refugees, facilitating their local integration, voluntary repatriation, or resettlement to a third country). A total of 4,816,923 Ukrainians have been registered as refugees in 44 European countries since February 24, 2022, according to the latest data published by the UN refugee agency.
Overall, as highlighted by the publication RFI, many more people have left the country. As of June 7, over 7.3 million border crossings from Ukraine were recorded, without subsequent registration of returns to the country.
2.3 million Ukrainians have returned to their homeland after leaving it following the start of the war, UNHCR reported. According to UN officials, they return to visit relatives, check on their property, return to work, or help others leave.
According to the UN, 90% of Ukrainians who fled abroad are women and children, while men aged 18 to 60 are forced to stay as they may be mobilized for military service.
According to estimates by the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM), over 8 million Ukrainians have become internally displaced persons due to the war.
According to UNHCR, more than half of the recorded border crossings from Ukraine were into Poland: 3.8 million people arrived on Polish territory, of whom 1.15 million were registered there as refugees. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have found shelter in other neighboring countries, such as Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, or Moldova, each of which has officially registered tens of thousands of refugees.
But the majority of registered refugees are in other European countries: about 780,000 in Germany, nearly 367,000 in the Czech Republic, over 118,000 in Spain, and tens of thousands in other states.
"The level of solidarity with refugees in (European) countries remains exceptional," UNHCR notes, recalling the special temporary protection regime that European Union countries are quickly granting to Ukrainian refugees.
According to UNHCR, since the start of the invasion, over 1.1 million people have left Ukraine for Russia and nearly 17,000 for Belarus. Data on the number of returns to Ukraine from these two countries are, for obvious reasons, unavailable.