Ukraine refugees reach 1 million in 7 days

More than 300 people had crossed from Ukraine into Belarus, the UNHCR said. (Source: AFP)

The UN refugee agency says 1 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion less than a week ago, an exodus without precedent in this century for its speed. The tally from UNHCR amounts to more than 2 percent of Ukraine's population on the move in under a week.

The World Bank counted the population at 44 million at the end of 2020. The UN agency has predicted that up to 4 million people could eventually leave Ukraine but cautioned that even that projection could be revised upward.

In an email, UNHCR spokesperson Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams wrote: Our data indicates we passed the 1M mark as of midnight in central Europe, based on counts collected by national authorities. On Twitter, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, wrote: In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of one million refugees from Ukraine to neighbouring countries.

Syria, whose civil war erupted in 2011, currently remains the country with the largest refugee outflows at more than 5.6 million people, according to UNHCR figures. But even at the swiftest rate of flight by refugees out of Syria, in early 2013, it took at least three months for 1 million refugees to leave that country. UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said Wednesday that at this rate the outflows from Ukraine could make it the source of the biggest refugee crisis this century.