“These are people that until just a few days ago had a perfectly normal life and in a matter of hours, everything is thrown apart,” U.N. high commissioner Filippo Grandi said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has created Europe’s fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II, according to the U.N. Here’s a look at the aid effort and what the U.S. is doing to help:
How many Ukrainians have fled?
More than 1.5 million Ukrainians have left the country since the war began, U.N. high commissioner Filippo Grandi estimated Sunday. Many more are still attempting to leave the country, as Russia continues to bear down. At least four civilians— a mother, her two children, and a friend of the family — were killed as they tried to flee the fighting outside Kyiv, the photojournalist Lynsey Addario reports.
“If I think of past decades, I cannot think in Europe of a faster exodus of people, not since the end of the Second World War,” Grandi said on Face the Nation.
Most Ukrainians have entered Poland, while others have fled to the neighboring countries of Hungary, Moldova, Slovakia, and Romania, per U.N. data.
The conflict could cause many more to flee:
Grandi fears that if the fighting continues, other countries outside Europe will need to step up to host refugees. He recently predicted that the number of people displaced by the conflict could grow to as many as 4 million.
1.5 million “is difficult enough to manage even for relatively stable and prosperous countries in Europe. Imagine, however, if we go further up and we will,” he said. “We will no doubt, if it doesn’t stop.”
The war is splitting families:
The vast majority of civilians leaving Ukraine are women and children. The Ukrainian government has mandated that men ages 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country. Many of the refugees have said they’ve felt both the acute pain of losing both their country, and their families. Some Ukrainians have come to refer to the separation as “a little death.”
The New York Times has more on these heart-wrenching goodbyes.
What is the U.S. doing to help Ukrainian refugees?
Last week, the White House said temporary protected status would be given to Ukrainains already inside the U.S. About 75,000 people are eligible for the program, the Department of Homeland Security estimates.
Most of the refugees have preferred to remain in Europe, where many have family, according to the Biden administration. But the White House has indicated that the U.S. is prepared to host Ukrainians, if needed.
“The United States is committed to doing anything we can, first of all, to support the countries that are bearing the immediate burden of taking in Ukrainians, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on CNN. “And then, as appropriate, if people seek refugee status in the United States, of course we will look at that and I’m sure act on that.”
