More Than 660,000 Individuals Flee Ukraine, Could Reach Four Million, Report Says

On Tuesday, the United Nations announced that more than 660,000 refugees have fled Ukraine within the past week in the wake of Russia’s full-scale military invasion. That number is expected to keep rising, with potentially 4 million individuals seeking safety in neighboring European countries, making this the potentially largest refugee crisis in the 21st century.

On Monday, the total number of Ukrainians and other citizens fleeing the Eastern European nation was totaled at half a million. By Tuesday morning, that number had risen by more than 160,000, according to the U.N.

Shabia Mantoo, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, stated that “at this rate, the situation looks set to become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century,” the PA News Agency reported.

Politico has reported that Hungary has announced that all refugees from Ukraine — including non-Ukrainian citizens — will be welcomed into its borders:

Hungary, in a turnaround from its long-standing opposition to immigration and refusal to accept refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has opened its borders to all refugees fleeing Ukraine, including third-country nationals that can prove Ukrainian residency.

As part of an agreement with some foreign governments, Hungary has set up a “humanitarian corridor” to escort non-Ukrainian nationals from the border to airports in the city of Debrecen and the capital, Budapest.

The D.C.-based outlet also added that Poland has accepted the most refugees, noting that the Polish government has reported that individuals from more than 100 nations have fled Ukraine into the country since the start of the war:

In Poland, the country that has reported the most arrivals, trains continued to bring refugees into the border town of Przemysl on Monday. In winter coats to protect them against near-freezing temperatures, many carried small suitcases as they lined up at the platform to exit the station.

Polish U.N. Ambassador Krzysztof Szczerski, speaking at the General Assembly, said that in addition to Ukrainians, those coming in Monday included people of some 125 nationalities, including Uzbeks, Nigerians, Indians, Moroccans, Pakistanis, Afghans, Iranians, Iraqis, Turks and Algerians.

The Daily Wire reported Tuesday that those who have stayed behind have been subject to “utter destruction” in cities like Kharkiv, Ukraine, which experienced an extremely damaging missile strike in a residential area sometime Monday evening local time, according to Ukrainian officials:

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, released a video showing the missile strike upon Freedom Square.

“Barbaric Russian missile strikes on the central Freedom Square and residential districts of Kharkiv. Putin is unable to break Ukraine down. He commits more war crimes out of fury, murders innocent civilians. The world can and must do more. INCREASE PRESSURE, ISOLATE RUSSIA FULLY!” he wrote.

That video can be seen here:

Barbaric Russian missile strikes on the central Freedom Square and residential districts of Kharkiv. Putin is unable to break Ukraine down. He commits more war crimes out of fury, murders innocent civilians. The world can and must do more. INCREASE PRESSURE, ISOLATE RUSSIA FULLY! pic.twitter.com/tN4VHF1A9n

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) March 1, 2022

“The missile strike was not the only damage in Kharkiv, according to Ukrainian officials,” The Daily Wire added. “On Tuesday, an area hospital reportedly burned in the city.”