About a third of Ukraine’s population has been forced out of their homes since Russia’s invasion in February, including more than 6.27 million internally displaced people, according to International Organization for Migration figures. , which, according to International Organization for Migration data, illustrates the scale of a humanitarian crisis that has largely played out. invisible as the war continued.
The number of internally displaced people reduces by 4.8 million Ukrainians who have fled to Europe for asylum, according to the UN refugee agency, which has described a level of displacement not seen since the Second World War.
While large swaths of the country suffered the brunt of the Russian invasion in its first weeks, the majority of displaced Ukrainians came from the east, as that area became the center of the country. of the conflict.
Boarding trains and buses, civilians poured out of cities and towns across eastern Ukraine, fleeing for the relative safety of the west and the northern capital Kyiv. Some have left in humanitarian convoys, navigating treacherous roads amid the threat of gunfire or shelling. Others have left, literally running for their lives.
And as Russian forces are now training their artillery in the eastern Donetsk province, aiming to capture the entire industrial region of Donbas, more and more people are being forced to leave their homes. The head of the regional military government, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said Wednesday on the social messaging app Telegram, that fires caused by Russian forces had killed five civilians in Donetsk in 24 hours. via.
For days, Kyrylenko warned people to leave the province, a sign that Ukrainian authorities believed the fighting would escalate. Officials hope to avoid attempting large-scale evacuations like in the neighboring province of Luhansk, which has fallen to the Russians in recent days.
Only three million people have been officially registered as internally displaced, although the true number is thought to be more than double. The lack of international humanitarian assistance has put additional strain on local resources.
“The state is not ready for a large-scale displacement of people in many areas,” Vitaly Muzychenko, Ukraine’s deputy minister of social policy, told a news conference this week, where he announced new plans to register people displaced for the benefit of the state.
This mass displacement has reshaped communities across the country, even those that have not suffered the physical destruction of war. Shelters have sprung up in public buildings, university dormitories have been converted and a number of modular homes have been set up to house displaced people.
The vast majority of internally displaced people, like refugees, are women and children, and many face shortages of food, water and basic necessities, according to experts from the United Nations.
Oksana Zelinska, 40, the principal of a kindergarten south of Kherson, currently occupied by Russian troops, fled in April with her two children, a colleague and the woman’s child. she went to the western city of Uzhhorod near the Slovak border. Her husband remains in Kherson, and she wants to return, but she says she will stay west for her children.
“When we got here, I needed to do something, it was difficult and I didn’t want to sit around and get bored,” she said. “I want to be useful.”
She began volunteering at the community kitchen she used when she first arrived, peeling potatoes and preparing a daily hot meal for dozens of participants.
Helping displaced people return to their homes – or find new places to live – remains one of Ukraine’s biggest challenges, regardless of the outcome of the war. Some of their homeland may not return to Ukrainian control. Others recaptured could be almost completely destroyed, with homes, water lines and other critical infrastructure crushed by the Russian Army’s burn-and-death tactics.
