(Kyiv) The Ukrainian Interior Ministry announced, on Sunday, the return of more than 500,000 people to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion.
Posted at 11:35 a.m.
“During the past week, 144,000 people left Ukraine and 88,000 people arrived. In total […]”About 537,000 citizens have returned to Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement, citing data from the State Border Service.
For its part, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Saturday recorded 4,176,401 Ukrainians who have left abroad since the conflict broke out on February 24, or 38,559 Ukrainians from the previous count the day before.
Europe has not seen such an influx of refugees since World War II.
About 205,500 non-Ukrainians have fled Ukraine, the UN’s International Organization for Migration said, sometimes facing difficulties in returning to their countries of origin.
In total, more than 10 million people, more than a quarter of the population, were forced to leave their homes, either by crossing the border in search of refuge in neighboring countries, or by moving to another place in Ukraine.
Prior to this conflict, Ukraine had more than 37 million inhabitants in territory controlled by Kyiv – thus not including Crimea (south) that Russia annexed in 2014, nor the eastern regions controlled by pro-Russian separatists since. general.
