Some 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded two weeks ago, and another two million have been internally displaced by the war, the United Nations said Friday.
The UN Refugee Agency s chief Filippo Grandi blamed the mass displacement on what he called a “senseless war” that began on February 24.
“The number of refugees from Ukraine, tragically, has reached today 2.5 million,” Grandi tweeted.
“We also estimate that about two million people are displaced inside Ukraine. Millions forced to leave their homes by this senseless war.”
Paul Dillon, spokesman for the UN s International Organization for Migration, said the 2.5 million people who had fled Ukraine included 116,000 nationals from other countries.
The UNHCR had been working on the estimate that four million people may eventually seek to leave Ukraine as the war continues.
But the agency said that given the scale of the exodus in less than three weeks, it would be no surprise if that figure was exceeded.
“It is quite possible that that planning figure of four million might be revised up,” UNHCR spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva, speaking via videolink from Poland, close to the Ukrainian border.
He said the numbers of refugees was “certainly unprecedented since World War II”.AFP
