GENEVA: The number of refugees who have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion grew by more than 90,000 over the past 24 hours, the United Nations said Wednesday.
UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, said 3,063,095 Ukrainians had fled across their country’s borders since the war began on February 24, a figure up 93,495 since Tuesday’s update.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration added that 162,000 third-country nationals had also fled.
The IOM estimates that millions of people are still stuck inside the country or internally displaced within Ukraine – and warns that even beyond those, “millions more may be affected if the war does not end”.
The UNHCR initially estimated that up to four million people could leave, but last week admitted that figure might well be revised upwards.
Before the conflict, Ukraine had a population of 37 million in the regions under government control, excluding Russia-annexed Crimea and the pro-Russian separatist regions in the east.
The refugees are mostly women, children, and the elderly.
More than 2.8 million flee Ukraine war: UN
UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, said around half of those who had fled were children.
Here is a breakdown of where Ukrainian refugees headed to, according to the UNHCR:
Poland
Six in 10 Ukrainian refugees crossed the Polish border, with some 1,857,045 having done so.
The Polish border guards said incoming numbers were down seven percent on Tuesday compared to Monday.
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 out to Poland.
Before the crisis, around 1.5 million Ukrainians lived in Poland, the vast majority working in the EU nation.
The data of arrivals into Ukraine’s neighbouring countries which are in Europe’s Schengen open-borders zone – Poland, Hungary and Slovakia – only represent border crossings into that country.
“We estimate that a large number of people have moved onwards to other countries,” UNHCR said.
Romania
The UNHCR said 467,703 people had made their way into neighbouring Romania, including people who had crossed over from Moldova to reach the EU member state.
The UNHCR figures per neighbouring country are 257,684 higher than their overall total – a difference which the agency says reflects the number of people who crossed between Moldova and Romania.
The vast majority are thought to have made their way onto other countries further into Europe.
Moldova
The UNHCR said 344,454 Ukrainians had crossed into the non-EU state. It is the closest border to the major port city of Odessa.
Many Ukrainians fleeing the fighting transit through Moldova, a small nation of 2.6 million people and one of the poorest in Europe, en route westwards to Romania and other countries beyond.
Hungary
A total of 272,943 Ukrainian refugees crossed into Hungary.
Hungary has five border posts with Ukraine and several frontier towns, including Zahony, where local authorities have turned public buildings into emergency centres for refugees.
Slovakia
Some 220,977 refugees made it across Ukraine’s shortest border into Slovakia. Another 7,977 Ukrainians entered Slovakia on Tuesday.
Russia
Some 155,841 refugees have sought shelter in Russia.
In addition, UNHCR said 50,000 people had crossed into Russia from the pro-Russian Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine between February 21 and 23.
Belarus
Some 1,816 refugees have made it to Belarus, the UNHCR says.