UNHCR puts number of Ukrainian crisis refugees at 230K

UNHCR puts number of Ukrainian crisis refugees at 230K

GENEVA -- A total of 230,000 people left their homes in Ukraine because of clashes between Ukrainian and pro-Russian forcec, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

A spokesman for the UNHCR Dan McNorton told reporters that the number of displaced persons, who were evacuated to other Ukrainian regions, was now at nearly 100,000 while around 130,000 others had fled to Russia.

"They are mainly from the region of Lugansk and Donetsk. The number has increased in the last few weeks," he explained, adding that the latest available data referred to July 18.

The spokesman for the UNHCR also said there was "a number of reasons why civilians decide to escape from the zone of conflict," and that the main of these reasons was "the fear of finding themselves in the crossfire," reported AFP.

Since the end of June, when the UNHCR last published its data on refugees in Ukraine, the number of displaced, which then stood at 54,000, has almost doubled.

The number of refugees in Russia at that time was 110,000. Earlier this week, Russian officials said that half a million people from Ukraine sought shelter in their country.