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Around 2,800,000 people forced to leave eastern Ukraine since beginning of conflict

ST. PETERSBURG, May 11. /TASS/. Around 2,800,000 people have been forced to leave the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine since 2014, head of the Russian office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Davron Mukhamadiyev told reporters on Thursday. According to him, more than 1,500,000 people became internally displaced, around 1,200,000 moved to Russia, while 100,000 chose to move to Belarus.

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"More than 1,500,000 internally displaced persons from southeast Ukraine currently reside in the central part of the country. This is the first part," Mukhamadiyev said. "The second part comprises 1,200,000 people, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This is the number of people that have moved to Russia since the beginning of the crisis, that is, since April 2014," he added.

Head of the Russian IFRC office also said that another 100,000 people had moved to Belarus.

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