The High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that 8.3 million Ukrainian refugees will live outside the country by the end of the year.
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The pace at which they cross borders has slowed, but Ukrainians continue to flee Russia’s invasion of their country. According to an estimate by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), unveiled on Tuesday 26 April, there will be 8.3 million by the end of the year, ie 3 million more than today.
A little more than two months after the start of the Russian army offensive, more than 5.2 million inhabitants of Ukraine have taken refuge outside the country, according to the UNHCR count. Some 2.9 million of them are in Poland and more than 600,000 people are in Russia. Women and children represent 90% of these refugees.
This new number of 8.3 million refugees is “a planning figure”, based on an examination of population movements and various possible scenarios in Ukraine, UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo told a press briefing in Geneva. The instance asks for 1.85 billion dollars to support its actions and those of its partners in favor of these people fleeing their country at war.
In addition, more than 7.7 million people have left their homes but are still in Ukraine, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Some of the inhabitants who fled the fighting have started to return, particularly in the kyiv region, from which the Russian army has withdrawn. The IOM estimates that this is the case for nearly 2.8 million displaced people. But some find a destroyed or still dangerous home.