There are around 36,400 people in Moldova, over 32,500 in Romania and about 30,000 in Slovakia, UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo said. Other groups are scattered in other unidentified countries.
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It comes as heartbreaking pictures show Ukrainian families gathered at rammed train stations in desperate attempts to escape Vladimir Putin’s forces.
The talks between Ukraine and Russia today will focus on achieving an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of forces, the Ukrainian presidency said in a statement.
But Putin’s sincerity is doubted and it’s feared the onslaught – which has already killed 352 Ukrainian civilians – will continue.
The attack risks displacing ‘over seven million people’, the EU has warned.
‘Desperate’ people try cramming on train to Poland to escape Ukraine
‘We are witnessing what could become the largest humanitarian crisis on our European continent in many, many years’, Janez Lenarcic, the EU commissioner for crisis management, said on Sunday.
The Russian president ordered his nuclear forces on high alert on Sunday in response to sanctions and so-called ‘aggressive statements’ by Nato countries.
‘Senior officials of the leading NATO countries also allow aggressive statements against our country, therefore I order the minister of Defence and the chief of the general staff [of the Russian armed forces] to transfer the deterrence forces of the Russian army to a special mode of combat duty’, Putin said in televised comments.
‘Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country.’
The move has been labelled as a ‘big attempt to distract away from his troubles in Ukraine’ by the UK defence secretary.
Source:metro.co.uk/2022/02/28/