Live updates: UN says internally displaced in Ukraine exceed 2 million
CTV
The UN refugee agency says it's noticing a slowdown in the number of people fleeing the fighting in Ukraine, though its estimate of internally displaced people has soared in the wake of evacuations from embattled cities like Mariupol and Sumy.
GENEVA -- The UN refugee agency says it's noticing a slowdown in the number of people fleeing the fighting in Ukraine, though its estimate of internally displaced people has soared in the wake of evacuations from embattled cities like Mariupol and Sumy.
Speaking by video conference from Poland, UNHCR spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh said the number of refugee arrivals, "particularly here in Poland, has been falling in recent days." Some of those fleeing the violence may have been "recuperating" in the western city of Lviv and "waiting to see whether they should cross the border or not."
Saltmarsh said UNHCR's latest estimate of people internally displaced in Ukraine was now above 2 million. He said it was not possible to estimate how many of those might travel abroad. UNHCR has previously projected that 4 million people, or more, could flee Ukraine.
In Poland, which has taken about two-thirds of the some 3.2 million refugees from Ukraine, those arriving in recent days appear "more traumatized" and "in shock," Saltmarsh said, and often come without a plan for where to go.
