CHICAGO (NewsNation) — The number of people fleeing Ukraine since the Russian invasion has probably now reached 2.1-2.2 million people, the head of the United Nation’s refugee agency UNHCR said on Wednesday.
At a press conference during a visit to Stockholm, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said, “The time is now to try to help at the border,” rather than discussions on the division of refugees between countries.
Grandi added that non-EU-member Moldova, in particular, was very vulnerable in the current situation.
Two million people equate to about 5% of Ukraine’s population. For context, it took two years for that many Syrian refugees to arrive in Europe.
The United Nations predicts that as many as 4 million, or about 10% of Ukraine’s entire population, might leave during the war — which would be more than the entire population of Oklahoma.
So far, Poland has accepted 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees, while neighboring nations Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova have also taken a large percentage of refugees.
About 10% of refugees have settled in Western European countries like France and Germany.
Last week, the EU passed a historic emergency provision allowing all Ukrainian refugees to live and work in any EU country for the next three years, so they don’t have to worry about being forced back to a country at war anytime soon.
Reuters contributed to this report.