As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine for a fifth day, actors Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds are pledging to match up to $1 million in donations to help thousands of Ukrainian refugees who have been forced to flee their homes.
The celebrity power couple posted about the fundraising effort on social media, promising to match donations made to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
"In 48 hours, countless Ukrainians were forced to flee their homes to neighboring countries. They need protection. When you donate, we'll match it up to $1,000,000, creating double the support," Reynolds tweeted Saturday.
Lively shared a photo on Instagram of a child refugee, writing that the UN Refugee Agency is "on the ground helping the 50,000+ Ukrainians who had to flee their homes in less than 48 hours... providing life saving aid, and also working with neighboring countries to ensure protection for these families."
The UN Refugee Agency said Monday that more than 500,000 Ukrainian refugees have been displaced by Russian forces and fled into neighboring countries, and that the number "continues to rise."
"Those fleeing for their lives need immediate shelter, protection and safety," the agency said on its fundraiser for displaced Ukrainians.
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The latest count had 281,000 people entering Poland, more than 84,500 in Hungary, about 36,400 in Moldova, over 32,500 in Romania and about 30,000 in Slovakia, an agency spokesperson said.
At the border crossing to Poland, families were waiting 40 hours to get into the country, bearing sub-zero temperatures overnight in a backup that stretched for nearly nine miles. In just a 15-hour stretch, 45,200 refugees crossed into Poland, an agency spokesperson tweeted.
The European Union's commissioner for home affairs advised countries neighboring Ukraine -- including Poland, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia -- to be prepared for an onslaught of refugee arrivals.
"It's very difficult to guess how many, but I think we should be prepared for millions," Ylva Johansson said Sunday, according to CNN.
Refugees are being registered and provided with shelter by national authorities in the receiving countries, the UN Refugee Agency said. Most are women, children and the elderly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy banned men of military age from 18 to 60 from leaving the country.
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