The United Nations has released reports stating that, since the beginning of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24 to March 4, an estimated 351 civilians have been killed in Ukraine, 1.3 million refugees have fled the country and the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine could reach 4 million.
The U.N. reported that the 351 civilians killed included 71 men, 41 women, 8 boys, 4 girls, 10 children and 217 adults “whose sex is yet unknown.”
“OHCHR believes that the real figures are considerably higher, especially in Government-controlled territory and especially in recent days,” the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported.
This report on the civilian toll comes as Russia and Ukraine agreed to a temporary cease-fire on March 4 to allow people to flee and humanitarian aid to enter. Despite the agreement, however, there were reports of attacks on civilians traveling through the supposedly safe humanitarian corridors.
Russian forces continued to shell the Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Saturday, despite agreeing to a ceasefire just hours earlier - throwing an attempted mass evacuation of civilians into chaos. https://t.co/Y1oJx0U8tb
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) March 5, 2022
As Russia’s attacks on Ukraine continue and military strikes occur on civilian and residential areas, more deaths are expected along with millions of refugees.
One week into the invasion, the U.N. reported that 1 million people left Ukraine to seek safety in neighboring countries.
As of March 4, 756,303 refugees had fled to Poland, 157,004 fled to Hungary and 103,254 fled to Moldova.
The remaining thousands of refugees comprising the 1.3 million total of March 4 fled to Slovakia, Romania, Russia, Belarus and other countries in Europe.
The United States Embassy in Ukraine reported in the early days of the invasion that wait times along Poland’s border crossing and others exceeded 24 hours. Recent reports, however, note significantly reduced wait times.
??The Ukrainian State Border Guard (@DPSU_ua) is posting queues for border crossings with all neighboring countries. The first number next to each crossing is the number of cars in the queue. The second is the number of pedestrians. https://t.co/XiQhFjE5UO
— U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) March 5, 2022
The U.N. Refugee Agency assisting people fleeing Ukraine has put out a call for donations to help supply food, shelter and other essentials for those whose lives have been uprooted by the invasion.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a statement that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has devastating humanitarian consequences and that, “There are no winners in war but countless lives will be torn apart.”
