This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Ten million people — about one-quarter of the population — have now fled their homes in Ukraine due to Russia’s unprovoked war, the United Nations refugee chief said on March 20.
“Among the responsibilities of those who wage war, everywhere in the world, is the suffering inflicted on civilians who are forced to flee their homes,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi tweeted.
“The war in Ukraine is so devastating that 10 million have fled either displaced inside the country, or as refugees abroad,” he added.
According to UNHCR figures, more than 3.4 million Ukrainians, mostly women and children, have left their country since the Russian invasion began on February 24.
Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 are eligible for military call-up and cannot leave.
The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said more than 1.5 million children are among those who have fled abroad.
The refugees are crossing to neighboring countries to the west, such as Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and Moldova.
The European Union has granted Ukrainians who flee the war the right to stay and work throughout the 27-nation bloc for up to three years.
Meanwhile, authorities in the besieged city of Mariupol claim that several thousand residents have been forcibly relocated to Russia in recent days.
“The occupiers are sending the residents of Mariupol to filtration camps, checking their phones, and seizing [their] Ukrainian documents,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration, said.
Many of Mariupol’s 400,000 residents have been trapped for more than two weeks as Russia seeks to take control of the strategic port city, bombarding it relentlessly and cutting it off from energy, food, and water supplies.
