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More than 1.7 million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24, and the number will only continue to increase, according to the latest statistics from the United Nations refugee agency on Monday, March 7.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees listed exactly 1,735,068 refugees on its dedicated website at 11:00 UTC on Monday. That’s 200,000 more people than last Sunday.
The United Nations expects the flow of refugees to surge, especially if humanitarian corridors open, which should theoretically allow civilians trapped in large cities to leave.
The current high commissioner for the UN refugee agency, Philippe Grandi, tweeted that more than 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine had crossed the border to neighbouring countries in ten days, the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
According to UN sources, as many as four million people may want to leave Ukraine to escape the war.
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine was home to more than 37 million people on territory controlled by Kyiv.
Poland hosts the largest number of refugees. According to UNHCR statistics, there are a total of 1,027,603 persons, or 59.2 per cent of the current refugee population. Last Sunday, 142,300 entered a new entry record. Before the crisis, there were already about 1.5 million Ukrainians working in Poland.
Hungary was second with 180,163 people, or 10.4% of the total refugee population.
Slovakia came in third with 128,169 refugees from Ukraine, or 7.4% of the total.