Number of refugees from Ukraine exceeding 900,000, says UN report
Russia is among the thirteen countries that has remitted money for assistance to Ukrainians fleeing their homes
UNITED NATIONS, June 27. /TASS/. Number of Ukrainians who have fled to neighboring countries after the outbreak of the armed civil conflict in Donbass in spring 2014 has exceeded 900,000 and most of them have found shelter in Russia, of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a report on Friday.
Information from governmental sources in the host countries suggests that the overall number of refugees seeking shelter or looking for other legal forms of residence in neighboring states has reached 900,300 people and most of them, or 746,000 have headed for Russia.
Country of destination number two for them is Belarus where 81,200 refugees have arrived, the report indicated.
As for the European countries, some 4,600 Ukrainian refugees have come to Germany, 3,600 to Poland and 2,900 to Italy.
In addition to it, a total of 1.35 million Ukrainians have been compelled to abandon their homes and have received the status of internally displaced persons. Of that number, 807,000 are retired people, while another 171,000 are children and 57,500 are disabled.
The UN refugee agency stated a sharp deterioration of the situation after large-scale combat clashes resumed in June. They brought about a notable worsening of the humanitarian situation and heavily restricted the freedom of movement - to a big degree because of the imposition of tight security measures.
The Office of the High Commissioner also called attention to a sharp shortage of finances for providing aid and assistance to the Ukrainians. Of the $ 40.5 million it has requested for the purpose, only $ 20.6 million has been provided to date.
Russia is among the thirteen countries that has remitted money for assistance to Ukrainians fleeing their homes.