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‘2.5 million people have now fled Ukraine’: UN as Russia continues shelling
The UN high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi said that approximately two million people are displaced within Ukraine.
The United Nations (UN) migration agency on Friday said that over 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine as of March 11, since Vladimir Putin-led Russia begun its invasion of Ukraine.
Compared to the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) last report on March 10, an additional around 200,000 refugees have fled Ukraine.
UN's IOM spokesperson Paul Dillon said that over 1.5 million refugees have fled to Poland, while around 116,000 refugees include third-country nationals, according to AFP. Meanwhile, the UN high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi said that approximately two million people are displaced within Ukraine as well.
According to the UNICEF data, over a million children have fled Ukraine so far with their families to Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Moldova, and Romania.
Read more: UNSC to meet amid biological weapons claims
Since Russia launched its ‘military offensive’ on Ukraine, several countries have issued advisories to their citizens and have started evacuation processes. India has brought back over 18,000 of its nationals under ‘Operation Ganga’, launched on February 26.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday said that all efforts are being made to evacuate people from worst-hit towns in the east-European nation’s capital Kyiv. According to Zelenskyy, over 35,000 civilians have used humanitarian corridors to flee Ukraine.
Read more: Russia, Ukraine in high-level talks after hospital attack sparks fury
On Wednesday, Russian airstrikes hit three hospitals in Ukraine amid hopes for mass evacuations of civilians. A humanitarian crisis has also hit several Ukrainian cities which have been without any food, water and power.
Read more: Kremlin to ask military for information on Ukraine hospital strike
Meanwhile, amid the international outrage over Russia's bombing of hospitals, Russia and Ukraine’s foreign ministers held their first face-to-face talks on Thursday. However, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said that they have made 'no progress'. On the other hand, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow wanted to continue negotiations with Ukraine.
