The number of Ukrainians fleeing abroad is now 4,019,287, the United Nations' Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said. Most, over 2 million, have fled to neighboring Poland. Germany, meanwhile, has officially registered some 280,000 asylum seekers, although the actual number is suspected to be much higher.
Four million is a little over 9% of the 44 million inhabitants Ukraine had before the Russian invasion began last month. Half of those fleeing are estimated to be children.
Aid workers say the flow has eased in recent days as many people await developments in the war. An additional estimated 6.5 million people have also been internally displaced from their homes within Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian forces are shelling nearly all towns and cities along the front line that separates Ukrainian government-controlled territory from areas held by Russian-backed separatists, the regional governor says.
Pavlo Kyrylenko said there had been attacks on Maryinka and Novomykhailivka this morning, posting images of destruction, and said the situation could worsen as Russian forces concentrated their efforts to gain control of the Donetsk region.
An adviser to Ukraine’s president says that the Russian military has redeployed some of its forces to the east of the country.
Oleksiy Arestovych said in televised remarks Wednesday that Russia has moved some of its troops from areas near Kyiv to the east in an effort to encircle the Ukrainian forces there.
He said Russia has left some of its forces near Kyiv to tie up Ukrainian troops there and prevent them moving to other areas. Arestovych said Russia hasn’t yet pulled back any of its troops from the northern city of Chernihiv.
Russian military officials have said they will focus their efforts on eastern Ukraine, where Moscow-backed rebels have been fighting Ukrainian forces since 2014. Russia also announced after talks Tuesday with Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul that it will scale down its activities around Kyiv and Chernihiv to help the talks succeed.
Chernihiv governor Viacheslav Chaus said that Russian strikes against civilian infrastructure continued overnight despite the Russian claim.
The Russian military has reported a new series of strikes on Ukrainian arsenals and fuel depots.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Wednesday that the military used air-launched long-range cruise missiles to target fuel depots in Starokostiantyniv and Khmelnytskyi in central Ukraine.
Konashenkov said in a statement that the Russian forces also hit the Ukrainian special forces headquarters in Bereznehuvate in the southern Mykolaiv region.
Konashenkov also said that the Russian military used mobile land-based Iskander missile launchers to hit two ammunition depots in the eastern Donetsk region. The Russian military said that it has shifted focus to Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas, where Moscow-backed rebels have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014.
(with inputs from AP)
