More than 847,000 people have fled Ukraine for neighboring countries since the Russian invasion began, and that number could surpass 1 million in the coming days, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The majority of people leaving Ukraine for safety are women and children, as a government order prevents men age 18-60 from leaving the country at this time.
The situation "looks set to become Europe’s largest refugee crisis this century," Shabia Mantoo, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said.
Most of the people leaving the country have gone to Poland, Hungary, Romania and Moldova. While there are also another 100,000 people currently displaced throughout Ukraine.
Amgad Naguib, a spokesman for the organization CARE, explained how the women and girls in Ukraine are in crucial need of assistance at this time, and have been even before the Russian invasion.
"Even before this recent escalation of conflict, 54% of the nearly 3 million people in Ukraine in dire need of humanitarian assistance were women and girls," Naguib said. "There is a desperate lack of data on how these women and girls are being specifically impacted, or the role they play in aiding and supporting their own communities in these times of extreme difficulty. Each day is a struggle for millions."
CARE helps the nonprofit group People In Need with humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, as Naguib went on to discuss the challenges Ukraine is facing right now.
"This will lead to a devastating impact on already damaged civil infrastructure, further restricting people’s movements, and disrupt essential public services such as water, power, transport, markets and banking," Naguib said.
James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson, talked about the trauma this will have on Ukrainian children after saying how fathers at train stations had to explain to their children why they were staying in the country.
"The trauma on children – the stress on children – just is increasing every single day because this is not anything that they are accustomed to nor should be accustomed to, but it's now their reality," Elder said.
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