KYIV —
Ukraine’s border force said Tuesday that more than 870,000 people who fled
abroad since the start of the war have returned to the country, including a
growing number of women and children.
اضافة اعلان
Spokesman Andriy Demchenko said that
currently 25,000 to 30,000 Ukrainians are returning each day.
He said more women, children, and elderly
were among those coming back than in the early days of the conflict when those
arriving had been almost exclusively men returning to fight the Russian
invasion.
“They say they see that the situation is
safer, especially in the western regions and they can no longer stay abroad,”
Demchenko told journalists.
“They are ready to return to the country and
stay here.”
The shift comes after
Russia’s battered
forces retreated late last month from near the capital Kyiv in preparation for
ramping up their offensive in the east of the country.
Ukraine’s interior ministry said on April 3
that 537,000 people had returned to the country.
The UN says that overall more than 4.6
million Ukrainians have fled abroad since
Russian President Vladimir Putin
launched the attack on February 24, in Europe’s fastest-growing refugees crisis
since World War II.
The vast majority of those who left crossed
into neighboring EU states Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and non-EU
member Moldova.
Refugee agency
UNHCR said Tuesday that
4,615,830 Ukrainians had fled since Russia invaded on February 24 — a figure up
68,095 from Monday.
“Even though the numbers of people crossing
the borders has declined significantly, those who have been crossing we’ve
noticed have been in a more vulnerable state, have had lesser means, and have
also had less of a plan as to where they might go,” UNHCR spokesman Matt
Saltmarsh said in Geneva.
Women and children account for 90 percent of those who
have left Ukraine, with men aged 18 to 60 eligible for military call-up and
unable to leave.
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