Tannuka Juneja
In three weeks, more than 3.5 million refugees have been forced to flee Ukraine, while a further 6.5 million people have been internally displaced. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 12 million people have been affected in the areas hardest hit by the war in Ukraine.
According to UNHCR, the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine has caused the destruction of civilian infrastructure and civilian casualties and forced people to flee their homes in search of safety, protection and assistance.
“The war in Ukraine is so devastating that 10 million people have fled, either internally displaced or refugees abroad,” Filippo Grandi said on Twitter on Sunday. “Among the responsibilities of those who wage war, everywhere in the world, is the suffering inflicted on civilians who are forced to flee their homes,” he added.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, more than 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety, almost a quarter of the population.
These figures include some 6.5 million internally displaced men, women and children, according to data maintained by the International Organization for Migration, and nearly 3.5 million people who have crossed Ukraine’s international borders as refugees, according to the information held by the UN Refugee Agency.
The organisation’s data reveals that 13.5 percent of those newly displaced and already had previous experience of displacement during 2014 and 2015 when the Russian army annexed Crimea and backed separatist militants in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
The World Health Organization says, it has verified six additional reports of attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine on Sunday, Dujarric said.
“As of 20 March, WHO has verified 52 attacks on health care in 25 days. WHO notes that this is more than 2 attacks per day, stressing that this, of course, is unacceptable and that health care must always be protected,” added the UN spokesperson.
In addition, at least 902 civilians, including 39 children, were killed and 1,459 others were injured in Ukraine as of March 19, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) estimated on Sunday. According to the office of High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, most of the dead and injured were victims of artillery fire, multiple rocket launchers and airstrikes.
The OHCHR specifies that the true toll of the war waged in Ukraine by the Russian army is very likely much higher, since it was unable to investigate in many areas, in particular in Mariupol and Volnovakha (region of Donetsk), Izium (Kharkiv), Sievierodonetsk and Rubizhne (Luhansk), and Trostianets (Sumy).
