A year of war in Ukraine – Largest refugee movement since World War II

According to UNHCR, the scale and speed of flight and displacement is unprecedented in the history of flight and displacement since 1945. Experts estimate that 50 to 60 million people, more than 10 percent of the continent’s population, became refugees, internally displaced or deported as a consequence of the Second World War. The refugee movements of millions of people continued in the post-war period: through the return of refugees, deportees and evacuees, but also through the expulsion, expulsion and flight of minorities.

“Fastest growing displacement crisis”
According to the UN, the war in Ukraine, which has been going on for a year, is even more dynamic. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the first months of the war saw the “fastest growing expulsion crisis since World War II”. In fact, just a few hours after the Russian attack on February 24, hundreds of thousands of people fled the war to neighboring Poland, Slovakia, Moldova and Russia. After 48 hours, UNHCR reported that 50,000 people had already fled across the border. After a week of war, a million people had left the country attacked by Russia.

93,171 Ukrainians fled to Austria
The majority of the now almost 8.1 million refugees from Ukraine – most of whom are women and minors – found shelter in the European Union. According to the EU, more than 4.8 million Ukrainians are registered under the EU’s mass influx directive or similar protection in countries such as Switzerland. The main receiving country is Poland, where about 1.6 million displaced persons are registered. Germany follows with more than a million refugees. 93,171 Ukrainians found shelter in Austria.

The fast and uncomplicated admission of Ukraine without an asylum procedure was achieved through the Mass Influx Directive, which first came into force a few days after the outbreak of war. This one was created as a result of the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Destroyed infrastructure, cold winter
Since Ukrainians can move freely in the EU, it is difficult to determine exactly how many refugees actually resided in which country. In addition, many Ukrainians – for example in the summer when the Russian attacks on Western Ukraine temporarily weakened – temporarily or permanently returned to their homeland. As a result of the massive Russian missile attacks on energy infrastructure last October and because of the winter, many people left Ukraine again.

About 2.9 million refugees from Ukraine were registered in Russia in October, more recent data is not available. Ukraine accuses Russia of deporting about two million Ukrainians to Russia. The US State Department estimates that between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, were forcibly taken to Russian territory last year. According to Russian information, the people are war refugees and evacuees from the combat zones.

5.4 million internally displaced people
According to the UN migration organization IOM, there are currently 5.4 million internally displaced people in Ukraine. The number of internally displaced persons was already significantly higher and amounted to around seven million in the summer. Since then, many Ukrainians have returned to their homes as a result of the Ukrainian reconquests, while others have fled abroad. Even before the Russian attack last year, there were hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in Ukraine. More than 850,000 people have fled to the west of the country as a result of the fighting in eastern Ukraine since 2014, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Many of them had to flee again because of the current war.