More Than 3 Million Ukrainian Refugees Have Fled as Russian Attacks Continue

Ukrainian refugees prepare to board a train to Poland at the train station in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 18, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

The tidal wave of Ukrainians displaced by Russia’s conflict continues spilling into border nations and other countries, surpassing more than 3 million people since the invasion began on Feb. 24.

At 1.5 million, nearly half of the refugees fleeing the country are children while 9 out of 10 people escaping are either women or minors, according to United Nations data.

Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said, “We have now reached 3 million mark in terms of movements of people out of Ukraine to neighboring countries. And among these people, there are some 157,000 third-country nationals.”

Ukrainian refugees prepare to board a train to Poland at the train station in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 18, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Further, the organization also noted large caravans of women and children making the difficult voyage to cross borders are inviting targets for human traffickers.

Refugees are particularly susceptible to being intercepted by traffickers near border crossings, where crowds of humanity, officials, and transportation workers can be disorienting for new arrivals.

“To give a sense of the border that I used to visit, the main border, Medyka, Poland to Ukraine ... scores of people standing around buses and minivans calling out names of capital cities ... the vast, vast majority, of course, are people with wonderful intentions and great generosity, but there is no doubt given what we understand of trafficking in Europe, that that remains a very, very grave issue,” James Elder, spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund said on March 15.

No End In Sight

Within a 20-day stretch, 150,000 people fled Russia’s war in Ukraine each day, which breaks down to 6,250 refugees departing every hour, according to IOM reports.

U.S. officials and President Joe Biden met last week to discuss the possibility of expediting the process of reuniting Ukrainian refugees with their relatives in the United States.

During a White House briefing on March 15, press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden’s administration was considering its options.

“There are conversations about helping Ukrainians coming to America. Obviously, they currently could apply through the refugee process, but we’re continuing to discuss what options may exist,” Psaki said.

One day prior, U.S. state department spokesman Ned Price asserted, “We have a [refugee] ceiling that is set every year. Within that ceiling, there are categories, including refugees from that part of the world.

“If there is a need for Ukrainian refugees to be resettled farther afield from neighboring countries, that is something that we will look at very closely.”

The majority of asylum seekers from Ukraine are ending up in border nations, with Poland taking on the majority at over 2 million people.

Romania has the second-highest number of refugees at 535,461, followed by the Republic of Moldova (365,197), Hungary (312,120), Slovakia (250,036), Russia (231,764), and Belarus (3,765).

Adrian Briss, a Polish realtor, is traveling from Poland to pick up a van load of refugees from Lviv, Ukraine, next to the Medyka border crossing in Poland on March 12, 2022. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

However, other countries in the European sphere are also taking on asylum seekers by the thousands, including the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

In the Czech Republic, officials indicated the nation was at the limit of its resources to handle more refugees on March 14.

A spokesperson for the Czech firefighters’ general directorate, Pavla Jakoubkova, said, “The state’s capacities are exhausted.”

“We are slowly getting to a state where we can only provide emergency shelter for refugees, i.e. to ensure emergency survival in emergency conditions.

“People will have to be concentrated in gyms, halls and so on, and their accommodation will not be comfortable.”

Germany has welcomed nearly 150,000 refugees. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced on March 13 more than 2,300 Technical Relief Agency volunteers have settled in the nation to support the displaced people fleeing the war in Ukraine.

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, also extended an invitation to Ukrainian refugees.

Temporary Shelters

“France, like all other European countries, will do its part to assist the Ukrainian people, but also to welcome refugees from this country,” the head of state said.

Officials in the country anticipate harboring upwards of 100,000 Ukrainians seeking asylum in the coming weeks.

Coordinator of the French inter-ministerial crisis cell, Joseph Zimet, explained, “We are trying to be ready for volumes that are likely to be much more significant in the days or weeks to come.”

Meanwhile, Irish authorities are scrambling to house more than 6,000 Ukrainians who have arrived since Feb. 24.

Nearly a third of those were being housed in hotels as temporary shelters as of March 15.

Since Ukrainians began arriving at the small island nation, the Irish Red Cross has been inundated with 14,000 volunteers offering shelter in their homes amid a lack of interim housing options for refugees.

Additionally, the United Kingdom has taken in 3,000 displaced people from Ukraine as of March 14, which has drawn criticism from some due to the sharp contrast with the government’s pro-Ukraine rhetoric.

Some analysts attribute the slow admittance of war refugees to the nation’s rigid immigration policy.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a press conference at Downing Street where he suggested the UK could use more domestically produced gas (Alberto Pezzali/PA)

No Clear Way Out

Even before navigating the complexity of crossing borders and the looming threat of opportunistic human traffickers, Ukrainians are risking their lives regardless.

Between Feb. 24 and March 15, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights documented 1,900 civilian casualties, with 726 people killed, including 52 children, which was primarily caused by Russian shelling in populated areas.

“Civilians are entitled to protection against the dangers arising from military operations,” UN under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs Rosemary DiCarlo asserted.

Multiple reports have emerged since early March of Russian troops firing on civilian evacuation routes, or green corridors, in addition to bombing railways used to transport civilians out of conflict zones, and deliberate strikes against civilian targets.

During a video address on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decried the Russian bombing of an art school in which he said around 400 civilians were seeking refuge.

“People were hiding there. Hiding from shelling, from bombing. There were no military positions ... Mostly women and children, the elderly. They are under the debris. We do not know how many are alive at the moment,” the embattled head of state said.

There have also been claims of Russian troops abducting and forcibly transporting non-combatants across the border to Russia from the besieged city of Mariupol.