UN: Over 12 million people stranded in Ukraine's fighting zones

This means that about a quarter of Ukraine's 44 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

Estimates by the International Organisation for Migration say Ukraine could reach in just a few weeks the level of population shift that had occurred as a result of the devastating war in Syria, where some 13 million people had been displaced from their homes both inside and abroad.

These findings have been made public through a document published on Friday, March 18th by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The forecasts also found that “over 12 million people are estimated to be trapped in affected or impossible to escape due to increased security risks, destruction of bridges and roads, as well as lack of resources or information on where they can find security and shelter”.

U n The NHCR, the UN refugee agency, has said that the fighting that followed Ukraine's Russian invasion on 24 February has caused the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

“According to these estimates, approximately half the country is either internally displaced, blocked in affected areas or unable to leave, or already fled to neighbouring countries”, it was said in the document, referring to Ukraine's 44 million population.

U n The NHCR, in recent figures released Friday, said more than 3.2 million people have left Ukraine.