2 million Ukrainians have fled since Russian invasion began, UNHCR says

The scale and speed of the exodus stunned even veteran humanitarians, including UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. announcing 2 million milestone on Tuesday, he paused and repeated the depressing figure: “Two million.”

“Time is of the essence,” said UNHCR spokesman Chris Meltzer, who visited the Polish border. “We reached 2 million refugees in just 12 days. I can’t remember a similar situation – but definitely not in Europe.”

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Some 500,000 refugees have fled to neighboring countries in just two days since Sunday, even as Ukraine accused Russia of shelling civilian evacuation routes.

Millions more are internally displaced, though the exact number is hard to say for sure. The UN estimates that up to 4 million people, roughly 10 percent of the population, could eventually leave Ukraine.

The railway stations were filled with huge crowds. In many cases, mothers and children say goodbye to male family members who stay behind to fight.

Border posts along Ukraine’s 1,600-mile curving western border were overcrowded. The lines to enter Poland stretch for 20 miles, and people wait agonizingly long days and cold nights, often without food or water. Physically and emotionally battered, many of those crossing the road wept when offered a bowl of hot soup or a warm car to warm their feet.

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Local governments in Poland, the country that hosted the largest number of refugees from Ukraine, have set up reception centers — overcrowded places where refugees sleep in open rooms on cots in bright light.

The further journey from the border largely depends on the connections of the refugees in other European countries. Those with no family or friends often have little more than an idea of ​​where to head first. Europeans from as far away as Spain and Germany arrived at border posts in vans filled with humanitarian aid and offered to take them back to their countries in their empty vehicles.

In a bustling, crowded Warsaw Central Station on Tuesday, mothers and their children, university students and grandparents sat on their torn suitcases, sipping hot tomato soup from plastic bowls and trying to figure out where to go next.

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Anastasia Kravchenko, 22, has just completed a three-day journey from Kyiv, including 15 hours of waiting in the freezing cold at the border. She and her mother, along with their cat Trixie, planned to continue on to Paris in a family friend’s car. Her father was still at home, where he could hear the approaching explosions.

“I am so afraid for my father,” she said. “I just want to get back as soon as possible.”

The Ukrainian government has accused Moscow of indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, as well as shelling of humanitarian corridors. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday cited reports that Russian troops had struck an evacuation route from the hard-hit port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine. “The truce is broken!” Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted. “Pressure on Russia MUST increase to make it meet its obligations.”

While Russian officials have said that evacuees from Kyiv would be flown to Russia after arriving in Gomel, Belarus, officials in Ukraine have dismissed the idea of ​​evacuation corridors leading to Russia or its ally in the war, Belarus.

Ukraine said on Tuesday that the only routes on which there is an agreement are for deliveries to regions within the country. Authorities in the northeastern city of Sumy said the first buses carrying evacuees had left for the Ukrainian city of Poltava.

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The besieged areas of the country sought a ceasefire to restore basic services such as electricity, heat and running water. Local officials such as Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko are warning of a humanitarian catastrophe for those who remain in cities surrounded by Russian troops.

According to the UN, of those who managed to leave Ukraine after the Russian invasion on February 24, more than 1.2 million people left for Poland alone. Hundreds of thousands fled to other European countries, including Hungary and Slovakia. About 100,000 people fled to Russia as of Tuesday, according to the UN.

The European Union has taken unprecedented action to help new refugees within its borders. Under rules announced last week, Ukrainian citizens will be offered temporary protection anywhere in the bloc of 27 countries for up to three years, depending on conditions. They will have the right to live, study and work within the EU.

“It is serious to see how the people of Ukraine are throwing their whole lives away to escape Putin’s bombs,” the President of the European Commission. Ursula von der Leyen wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “Supporting them is our moral duty.”

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Known as Temporary Protection, the rules allow Ukrainians to circumvent the normal asylum system, a system that leaves migrants from other countries, especially Africa and the Middle East, in limbo for years after arrival.

While Europe appears united in its desire to help the Ukrainians, the benevolent tone has raised questions about why the same rules were not used to help fleeing Syrians, Afghans and others. Some of the governments most resistant to previous waves of asylum seekers are now opening their doors.

On Monday, Grandi said the outflow of Ukrainians illustrates the need for better international coordination to resettle refugees in Europe and elsewhere.

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“This is where we need a more structured system in the EU and of course outside the EU. [for] … how to share this responsibility,” Grandi said, pointing to the UK, the US, Canada and other countries. “I really hope that this, after all, is the positive side of this crisis, that Europe understands that any country can become [a] recipient of a large number of refugees and needs the help of others.”

Meltzer of the UNHCR praised the support for refugees in Poland. “It’s a fantastic effort that works well,” he said. “But no one knows what will happen. If the numbers keep going up, it won’t be easy.”

Noting that 1 million of the 2 million Ukrainians fleeing the country are children, UNICEF spokesman James Elder acknowledged the deep impact of the crisis on Ukrainian children on Tuesday.

“Dark Historical First”, he tweeted.

Timsit reported from London, Bella from Washington, Bearak from Lvov, Ukraine, and Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff and Zoanne Murphy from Warsaw. Emily Rauhala from Brussels contributed to this report.