The number of refugees who have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24 has exceeded 2.8 million, the UN announced on Monday.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that 2,808,792 refugees have fled the country so far and this is the largest exodus of refugees to Europe since World War II.
UNICEF says more One million children have fled Ukraine.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) initially estimated that up to four million people could leave, but last week acknowledged that number could be revised upwards.
Prior to the invasion, Ukraine had a population of 37 million in government-controlled areas, with the exception of annexed Crimea by Russia and pro-Russian separatist regions in the east.
“About 127,000 third-country nationals, mostly students and migrant workers, are among the 2.8 million who have fled Ukraine,” the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement. >
Many refugees arriving in Ukraine's seven neighboring countries then travel to other countries, especially to Western Europe.
Details of refugee host countries
More than six out of ten Ukrainian refugees are hosted in Poland, with 1,720,227 currently in the country, according to the UN.
Tens of thousands of people are also entering Ukraine from Poland, mostly those returning to fight but also others seeking to care for elderly relatives or returning to bring their families to Poland. Prior to the crisis, some 1.5 million Ukrainians lived in Poland.
As of last Friday, 304,156 of those who had left Ukraine had moved to other European countries besides neighboring .
A total of 255,291 are located on Hungarian soil. Hungary has five border crossings with Ukraine and several border towns, including Zahoni, where local authorities have turned public buildings into emergency shelters for refugees.
Some 204,862 refugees are now in Slovakia. Another 8,882 people crossed Ukraine's nearest border on Sunday, officials said.
UN figures show that some 131,365 refugees have sought refuge in Russia. In addition, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced that 96,000 people crossed into Russia from the pro-Russian Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine between 18 and 23 February.
Many Ukrainians fleeing the fighting Moldova, a small nation of 2.6 million people and one of the poorest in Europe, is on its way west to Romania and Hungary. An estimated 106,994 are currently in Moldova.
Moldova announced on Monday that a total of 297,728 people had passed through Ukraine.
The UN has not released statistics on Romania. but on March 8 reported that 84,671 people who had passed through Ukraine were in the country. Bucharest said Monday that 412,017 people had fled the border, the vast majority of whom had moved to other European countries. Another 14,475 Ukrainians entered Sunday, including 6,612 directly from Ukraine.
About 1,226 refugees have arrived in Belarus.
