In the early hours of February 24, Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine. The next day, 50,000 citizens of the country had left their homes to seek refuge in neighboring countries, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). A week later, the number rises to 1,045,000 Ukrainians displaced by the war, most of them women and children. On Tuesday alone, more than 190,000 people left the country, 6,000 every hour.
Half of these refugees have crossed the borders into Poland, where a large community of Ukrainians already resides. Another 133,000 have arrived in Hungary and the rest are distributed in other countries.
But this is only the beginning. According to UNHCR, up to four million people could leave Ukraine. The European Commission, which estimated at seven million potential refugees from the conflict, is preparing to manage an unprecedented crisis.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
subscribe
Overcrowded stations and border controls
Land transport has become the main escape route since the airspace was closed with the beginning of the invasion.
Before the conflict, more than fifty trains left Ukraine for international destinations. Under normal conditions, the more than 22,000 kilometers of railways in the former Soviet republic move 37.5% of the country’s passenger traffic.
Ukrzaliznytsia, the company that manages this infrastructure, requested on Wednesday the establishment of a safe humanitarian corridor to continue the evacuation of civilians. According to the maps in which the entity collects the state of the network, at least two stations have suffered damage during the conflict and more than 20 are out of service.
The Lviv terminal, in the west of the country, is the second busiest after Kiev. From this stop, located about six hours by train from the capital and almost 14 hours from Kharkov, there are 55 different routes to other major cities in the country. It is also an international node to Poland or Germany or to Slovakia and Hungary through the border city of Uzhgorod.
Queues inside the station KyivFebruary 28th. Vadim Ghirda/AP.
You wait on a station platform LvivFebruary 27. Bernat Armangue/AP.
Arrival at a station in Warsaw, Poland26 of February. Albert Zawada/EFE.
Arrival at a station budapest, Hungary. March 1st. Janos Kummer/Getty Images.
Until Thursday, those who have left their country by road painted a trail of congested roads at the exit of the metropolitan areas and on the way to the border posts. This was reflected until Monday by traffic data from Google, which has since stopped publishing this information in Ukraine due to concerns about how it could be used by Russian troops.
Under normal conditions, the drive from Kiev to Poland would take about 10 hours. Now, just crossing the border can mean an additional 60-hour wait, UNHCR spokesman Shabia Mantoo said on Tuesday. Not in vain, between Monday and Tuesday more than 100,000 people passed from one country to another, according to the Polish authorities. Queues to reach Romania exceeded 20 kilometers, and traveling the 60 kilometers that separate Moldova from the Ukrainian capital could take 24 hours, according to UNHCR estimates.
border crossing of
Vylok-Tiszabecs
A caravan of vehicles, of more than 700 meters long, wait to cross the border from Ukraine to Hungary.
Of the hundreds of refugees gathered in this town in eastern Hungary, the majority are women and children who left behind their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons to fight in the Ukrainian resistance.
Satellite image: Planet Labs PBC, via AP.
border crossing of
Vylok-Tiszabecs
A caravan of vehicles, of more than 700 meters long, wait to cross the border from Ukraine to Hungary.
Of the hundreds of refugees gathered in this town in eastern Hungary, the majority are women and children who left behind their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons to fight in the Ukrainian resistance.
Satellite image: Planet Labs PBC, via AP.
Vylok-Tiszabecs border crossing
A caravan of vehicles, of more than 700 meters longwaiting to cross the border Ukraine to Hungary.
Of the hundreds of refugees gathered in this town in eastern Hungary, the majority are Women and children who left behind their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons to fight in the Ukrainian resistance.
Satellite image: Planet Labs PBC, via AP.
This difficult exodus also occurs in the coldest months of the year, with temperatures in Kiev ranging between -1 and -6 degrees Celsius, and with the added obstacle of controls at border posts, whose guards try to ensure that men between 18 and 60 years old who can be recruited remain in the country.
A challenge for the European Union
The Crimean crisis in 2014 forced almost four million people from their homes in a country of 44 million. A year later, 1.6 million people had fled the region, mainly to other government-controlled areas of the country. The conflict then only affected one region, but now the Russian invasion is likely to reach more parts of the territory, forcing refugees to flee abroad.
UNHCR notes that up to 1.5 million displaced persons could end up in Poland, where the Ukrainian community is already the largest. In 2019, about 1.4 million compatriots lived there, according to the Polish government. They are also the most important foreign nationality in the Czech Republic (162,000) and in Lithuania (27,000), according to Eurostat. In Spain there are about 107,000 people with Ukrainian citizenship, 60% distributed between Madrid, Catalonia and the Valencian Community.
In the current context, different European countries are simplifying their procedures for receiving Ukrainian refugees in response to the EU decision to activate a directive for unlimited reception and the granting of temporary residence permits. In addition to facilitating access, the rule provides that the displaced have adequate accommodation.
Follow all the international information in Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.
#million #refugees #flee #war #Ukraine #week #data #exodus