New Delhi: One child is becoming a refugee every second in the Ukraine war, said the United Nations, reported news agency AFP. Since Russia’s invasion in Ukraine on February 24, over one million children have fled Ukraine in search of safety and shelter, said UNICEF.
"They need peace NOW," the UN children's agency said, quoted AFP.
Overall, more than 3 million refugees have left the country, said the UN.
As per UN’s refugee agency, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2,808,792 refugees had now left the country, making it the largest refugee exodus in Europe since World War II.
Before the conflict started, the Eastern European nation had a population of 3.7 million in the regions under the control of the Ukrainian government, excluding Russia-annexed Crimea and the pro-Russian separatist regions in the east.
"People continue to flee the war in Ukraine every minute," said the UN's International Organisation for Migration. Of the 2.8 million refugees who have left Ukraine, 1,27,000 constitute mainly students and migrant workers from other countries, the IOM added.
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People who manage to reach borders are moving towards Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia, Moldova, and Belarus.
More than six in 10 of the Ukrainian refugees are reaching Poland, with 1,720,227 now in the country, according to the UNHCR.2,55,291 refugees have been hosted by Hungary so far, 2,04,862 refugees are in Slovakia, 131,365 in Russia, 106,994 in Moldova, 1,226 in Belarus, said the UNHCR.