GENEVA, June 27. /ITAR-TASS/.Ukrainian refugees in Russia have reached 110,000, the spokeswoman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said.

Totally 9,500 people have applied for refugee status in Russia, Melissa Fleming said on Friday.

Another 800 Ukrainians have asked for shelter in Poland, Belarus, the Czech Republic and Romania, she said.

Since early 2014 110,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Russia, Fleming told a news conference.

Most people are trying to obtain legal status by other means because they fear of difficulties: if they are granted refugee status, they can be persecuted upon the return to Ukraine,” she said.

Among other means, Fleming named people’s applying for citizenship, labour permit and temporary residence permit.

Most Ukrainian refugees choose Rostov-on-Don and Bryansk for residence. About 13,000 people, including 5,000 children, are deployed in Rostov-on-Don. Monitoring missions have been sent to the cities, she said.

The refugee flow coincides with the deterioration of the situation in Eastern Ukraine, Fleming said.

Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said on Wednesday, June 25, that over 23,000 Ukrainian refugees had fled to Russia.

“We have set up 262 camps for temporary accommodation of refugees from Ukraine and 23,286 people are staying in them,” she said. “This number is constantly changing because regions are making job offers and some refugees are changing their status to Russian citizenship and moving to Russian regions for permanent residence,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, the number of wounded Ukrainians staying in hospitals in the southern Rostov Region has increased to 20, Tatyana Bykovskaya, regional health minister, told ITAR-TASS.

She said the number of wounded persons coming from Ukraine had decreased after the ceasefire in the south-east of the neighbouring country. One of the patients has stated his wish to stay in Russia and apply for Russian citizenship.

In her words, most of them or 42,4 thousand are natives of east Ukrainian regions.