Chris Boian, UNHCR spokesperson, joins Cheddar News to discuss the Ukraine refugee crisis.

Between Bells

Ukraine Refugee Crisis Grows Amid Russia's Invasion

this is back on cheddar news. Everyone, 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes to other parts of the country or across its borders. And that's just since Russia's invasion on february the 24th so far, nearly 2.1 million have gone to Poland. So far, more than a million have escaped to other neighboring countries like Hungary and Slovakia. And about 100 and 85,000 have gone to Russia. So joining us now to discuss is chris boy in spokesperson for the U. N. Refugee agency. Chris thanks so much for joining us. According to your organization, about 500 unaccompanied Children across from Ukraine into Romania just in a period of about three weeks. So where does this refugee crisis stand? Right now? As you mentioned, we have seen now, over 3.5 million people flee Ukraine into other countries in the region. But in addition to that, More than 6.5 million people now have been forcibly uprooted from their homes but remain inside of Ukraine itself. We are seeing civilians paying terrible, terrible prices as a result of this war now. And as you mentioned that many of them are women and Children. The vast majority of people fleeing to the other countries are women and Children as men are staying behind in Ukraine to fight. And this includes people in very vulnerable situations. So, humanitarian needs now are rising exponentially outside of Ukraine itself, of course. But inside of Ukraine, it's a very dramatic situation that's changing by the hour. And I think the one if there is any sort of good news that comes from this, it's just been how good it's been to see other countries and people opening their doors and how nice and amazing they've been to most of these refugees Now use latest measure is going to allow Ukrainians temporary protection anywhere in the 27 country bloc of up to about three years. They're basically going to bypass asylum here. So Chris how is it impacting not just these citizens but these other countries as well. All this influx of refugees that are coming here? Well, as you say, as the U. N. Refugee agency, we have of course been very heartened to see the kinds of welcome and the reception that people fleeing the war in Ukraine have received in neighboring countries. And yes, now under the Eu solidarity platform as it's called, there are programs and plans being put into place to relocate some of those people who have found initial safety in countries neighboring Ukraine to other european countries. I saw something today about one of the first flights of people of Ukrainian refugees being relocated to other european countries. So we're very heartened to see that we continue to call on all countries to keep their borders open to receive people that are fleeing these dangers in Ukraine at the moment. But so far what we've seen has been very heartening for. Are you guys telling people the best course of action here is to stay in Ukraine. I mean I saw with what's happening in Mariupol right now, obviously Russia is asking people to surrender. They obviously have not done so. But is the expectation here that most of these people that are still in Ukraine right now are going to be fleeing down the road and it's sort of the guidance here for them to either stay in Ukraine or to flee. We're not providing guidance to people inside Ukraine itself at the moment. They are making decisions for themselves about what they need to do to get to safety if they can. As you mentioned, we're seeing now inside of Ukraine's very dramatic circumstances in Mario people for example, and sumi people are now facing critical and potentially fatal shortages Of basics such as food water, medicines in other parts of the country as well. In in Odessa, for example, the authorities have passed for food support for 450,000 people and in eastern Ukraine as well in the Donetsk region, there are some 200,000 people now unable to access water and in the continued shelling in the Lugansk region, also in Eastern Ukraine as resulted in approaching 100,000 families without electricity. So the situation is dire in many parts of the country, we are closely monitoring negotiations for safe passage and UNhcr staff remained inside the country and are working to help people whenever they can and wherever they can reach them safely, but we continue to insist that our need to be able to reach those communities and assist them depends on safe passage and guarantees of the safety of our staff and the organizations we work with in Ukraine chris nobody knows how long this is gonna go on for. President. Biden said that the White House just maybe about a few weeks or so. He expects that this is going to be a long drawn out process here. How much worse can this possibly get here for these refugees? And what sort of numbers are you expecting down the road here when it comes to this refugee situation? Our organization estimated early on as this conflict began to unfold that as many as four million people could be forced to flee Ukraine into neighboring countries. That remains our estimate. But at the same time we're watching the situation as it continues to evolve and we're prepared to change that estimate and forecast of what could happen in terms of the numbers of people fleeing Ukraine. If this conflict continues, I don't know anybody who knows how this is going to play out in the days and weeks ahead. So we're prepared to make adjustments. We have prepositioned stocks of humanitarian aid, both inside of Ukraine and in neighboring countries. And our staff is present on the ground in Ukraine and in those neighboring countries to support those governments that are responding to refugees and receiving them and using all means at our disposal. So we'll make adjustments as the situation calls for going forward. It's just so heartbreaking all around chris thank you so much for everything you guys are doing chris buoyant as the spokesperson for the U. N. Refugee agency, joining us here.