Ukrainian Refugee Numbers Cross 600,000, Says UNHCR

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https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-01/

Ukrainian Refugee Numbers Cross 600,000, Says UNHCR
By Eric Sylvers

The number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the country is rising rapidly and reached 660,000 early Tuesday, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

The number of refugees that have crossed from Ukraine into neighboring countries is 110,000 more than what Filippo Grandi, the head of the UNHCR, cited late Monday in an address to the U.N. Security Council. If the situation escalates, 4 million people could flee Ukraine, the agency said.

About half of the refugees have fled to Poland, where some people have waited 60 hours to cross the border. The wait at the Romanian border has been up to 20 hours while in recent days it has taken 24 hours to drive the 40 miles from Odessa in southwestern Ukraine to the Moldova border. Refugees have also crossed into Russia.

European Union leaders are meeting Thursday and may approve a temporary directive set up in the aftermath of the wars in the former Yugoslavia that allows countries to bypass normal refugee procedures and speed up processing. The directive, which must then be approved by a majority of EU countries, has never been implemented.

Aid agencies have been mobilizing to get food to Ukraine. The World Food Program, a UN agency specialized in responding to humanitarian crises, has food shipments arriving Tuesday at the Polish border. Food is expected to arrive soon also in Kyiv. The group, which is scaling up to be able to feed 3.1 million people, will start by distributing ready-to-eat meals and then longer term will distribute cash and coupons that can be redeemed in retail stores if food is available for purchase.