The UN refugee agency said Thursday that 1 million people have now fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion less than a week ago, an exodus without precedent in this century for its speed.
The tally from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees amounts to more than 2% of Ukraine's population 바카라 which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020 바카라 on the move across borders in just seven days.
The agency cautions that the outflows are far from finished: It has predicted that as many as 4 million people could eventually leave Ukraine, and even that projection could be revised upward.
In an email, UNHCR spokeswoman Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams wrote, 바카라Our data indicates we passed the 1M mark바카라 as of midnight in central Europe, based on counts collected by national authorities.
On Twitter, UN High Commissioner Filippo Grandi wrote, 바카라In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of one million refugees from Ukraine to neighbouring countries.바카라
Grandi appealed for the 바카라guns to fall silent바카라 in Ukraine so humanitarian aid can reach millions more still inside Ukraine.
Such comments testified to the growing concerns across the UN system, with agencies like the World Health Organisation and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 바카라 which launched an appeal for funds with UNHCR on Tuesday 바카라 voicing their worry.
Syria, whose civil war erupted in 2011, remains the country with the largest refugee outflows 바카라 nearly 5.7 million people, according to UNHCR figures.
But even at the swiftest rate of flight out of that country, in early 2013, it took at least three months for 1 million refugees to leave Syria.
Two years later, in 2015, hundreds of thousands of Syrian and other refugees who had mostly been in Turkey fled into Europe, prompting disarray in the European Union over its response and at times skirmishes and pushbacks at some national borders.
So far, UN officials and others have generally praised the response from Ukraine's neighbours, who have opened homes, gymnasiums and other facilities to take in the new refugees.
UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said Wednesday that 바카라at this rate바카라 the outflows from Ukraine could make it the source of 바카라the biggest refugee crisis this century.바카라
According to the latest figures on UNHCR's online data portal, which still showed 934,000 refugees early Thursday, more than half of the refugees from Ukraine had gone to neighbouring Poland 바카라 over 505,000 바카라 and more than 116,000 had gone to Hungary to the south. Moldova had taken in more than 79,000 and 71,200 had gone to Slovakia.
Ghedini-Williams said the figures on the data portal reflected a count through midafternoon in Europe, but the agency had received estimates of additional arrivals through the rest of the day and into the evening.
