By PTI
GENEVA: The UN refugee agency says more than 874,000 people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion last week and the figure is “rising exponentially,” putting it on track to cross the 1 million mark possibly within hours.
UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said Wednesday that people are continuing to stream into Ukraine’s neighbouring countries to the west, with more than 200,000 fleeing since Tuesday.
A day earlier, Mantoo had cautioned that the outflows from Ukraine could make it the source of the “biggest refugee crisis this century”, eclipsing the one from Syria’s war over the last decade.
She noted that UNHCR had previously projected that as many as 4 million people might flee Ukraine, but noted that the agency will be re-evaluating its forecast.
The latest figures show that more than half, or nearly 454,000, have gone to Poland, more than 116,300 to Hungary and over 79,300 to Moldova.
Another 69,000 have gone to other European countries and 67,000 have fled to Slovakia.
Mantoo noted that the figure of 874,000 was an increase from more than 660,000 only a day earlier, and some 116,000 on Saturday, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb.24.
Japan’s prime minister says his country will accept refugees from Ukraine, as Russia invades its eastern European neighbour.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters on Wednesday that the offer includes Ukrainians who have fled to Poland.
“We plan to start first with those with family and friends in Japan, but we will not stop there and will respond from a humanitarian viewpoint,” Kishida told reporters.
The Japanese offer is unusual, though Japan has accepted refugees before, from various nations, albeit in very small numbers.
Japan has often been criticised for providing a relatively narrow door for migrants wanting to get in.
Those immigration policies have become even tighter due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Israel’s president says his country is helping to push for a diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine and is offering its services to achieve that.
President Isaac Herzog said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart on Wednesday that Israel is also sending an “unprecedented amount” of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, totaling some 100 tons.
Herzog said the aid is a “moral obligation” and that his country is considering more ways to support the Ukrainian people.
He said a missile attack on the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial in Kyiv “epitomises the huge pain and suffering of people there” and the “terrible tragedy that we’re seeing unfolding in front of our eyes.”
The Israeli president called the war in Ukraine “an affront to international order.”
