What an exodus of 11.4 million people looks like
In the six weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, over 4 million people have left their homes by train, bus and car, on their way to seven countries. More than 7 million people have fled to another part of the country. See the different paths taken in our interactive.
By Monica Hersher, Jiachuan Wu, JoElla Carman and Anna Brand
April 7, 2022
More than 1,500 civilians were killed and 2,000 were injured in Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. And over 11 million people — a quarter of Ukraine’s population — have been forced to flee their homes as a result, according to an April 1 report by the International Organization for Migration. The U.N. refugee agency counts more than 4 million people who have fled to bordering countries, while the International Organization for Migration estimates that as of April 1, more than 7 million have fled to safer regions in Ukraine that have fewer residential attacks.
In the past six weeks, bombs and shells have destroyed apartment buildings, city squares, hospitals, schools and businesses across the country. Civilians have slept in subway stations and basements for safety. City centers that used to be bustling are barren. Neighborhoods have been flattened. Many refugees have to navigate up to 700 miles through a patchwork network of buses, trains and cars. In cities such as Mariupol, where U.N. reports estimate that 90 percent of residential buildings have been affected by active fighting, food and water are scarce and officials have struggled to establish protected evacuation routes.
Attacks, particularly heavy across north, east and south Ukraine, pose a serious threat to those who choose to stay. Explore some of the refugee journeys through maps, graphics, photos and videos.
Since the war began, attacks have been particularly intense in the southern city of Mariupol, the capital of Kyiv, the northern city of Chernihiv, and the eastern city of Kharkiv.
Many of the attacks have heavily damaged civilian areas. In cities such as Kyiv, Mariupol and Chernihiv, attacks have flattened homes and buildings.
Irpin
March 25 — In Irpin, a 60,000-person suburb northwest of Kyiv, a house burns.
Mariupol
March 22 — In Mariupol, a southern city that has been the site of intense fighting for weeks, a high-rise apartment building smolders.
Chernihiv
March 21 — In Novselivka, a village northeast of the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, large craters are scattered among destroyed homes.
Since the war began, attacks have been particularly intense in the southern city of Mariupol, the capital of Kyiv, the northern city of Chernihiv, and the eastern city of Kharkiv.
Many of the attacks have heavily damaged civilian areas. In cities such as Kyiv, Mariupol and Chernihiv, attacks have flattened homes and buildings.
Irpin
March 25 — In Irpin, a 60,000-person suburb northwest of Kyiv, a house burns.
Mariupol
March 22 — In Mariupol, a southern city that has been the site of intense fighting for weeks, a high-rise apartment building smolders.
Chernihiv
March 21 — In Novselivka, a village northeast of the city of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, large craters are scattered among destroyed homes.
As fighting destroys their homes and threatens their lives, many Ukrainians have fled to seven nearby countries. The U.N. refugee agency estimates that 4.3 million people have fled Ukraine since the war started on Feb. 24. Almost 2 out of 3 of those who have left have gone to Poland.
An additional 7.1 million have left their homes to seek refuge in areas less affected by fighting, according to an April 1 study by the International Organization for Migration. Many have fled west from Kyiv and other cities and villages in the country.
Those who decide to leave face multiple grueling legs of transportation. For some, traveling on foot is their only option.
The following photos and videos show what the journey has looked like for some: lines of buses, a crowded train platform and a fallen bridge that leaves no option but to cross the river by foot. While Russian and Ukrainian officials have agreed on numerous cease-fires and humanitarian corridors to help facilitate safe evacuations, authorities claim that Russian troops have not always respected the agreements. According to the most recent U.N. refugee report, published on March 30, evacuation has been particularly difficult out of Mariupol and Chernihiv.
Evacuees are reliant on a rapidly changing network of cars, trains, buses and humanitarian corridors.
In some regions damage to infrastructure makes travel especially difficult. In the following video, Ukrainian police officers help evacuees from a region northwest of Kyiv bypass a destroyed bridge and cross the Irpin River by foot. The bridge is one of only three in a five-mile radius and sits on a critical evacuation route for those evacuating from the heavily bombarded suburbs of Bucha and Irpin.
Police of Kyiv Region
Police of Kyiv Region
Yet others are trapped. In Mariupol, a city of almost half a million, officials have struggled to agree on humanitarian corridors that would allow residents to evacuate safely. While Ukraine and Russia agreed to a protected corridor on March 27, a convoy of humanitarian workers had to turn around when they were unable to pass through a Russian blockade on Friday.
The humanitarian crisis in the city is becoming increasingly dire. Nearly 40 percent of residential housing has been destroyed by Russian attacks, according to a March 30 report by the U.N. refugee agency. And mined roads and a blocked port mean many residents are living without access to electricity, food, water and medicine. At least 300 people were killed on March 16 when Russian forces bombed a theater where 1,000 people were sheltering.
If evacuees can make it to the border, there are over 60 places they can cross it into bordering countries, according to data aggregated by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Medkya, Poland
One heavily trafficked border crossing leads to Medkya, Poland.
Reuters
Reuters
Medkya, Poland
One heavily trafficked border crossing leads to Medkya, Poland.
Reuters
Reuters
When refugees exit Ukraine into places such as Medkya, emotions are mixed. Many have left behind beloved friends and family without knowing when they will be reunited. The grief and uncertainty of this transition can trump the joy and relief that others feel as they return to their routines and are welcomed by their new communities.
Reuters
Reuters
For a small number of people, the emotional and logistical turmoil of being away has trumped the threat of war. According to the Ukraine Border Guard, more than 30,000 — fewer than 1 percent of those who have left — returned to Ukraine on Saturday.
“Home. We want our homes. We want our soil,” one woman trying to cross back into Ukraine through the Medkya crossing told an NBC News reporter.
For others, the transition to a new country has been more joyous. In Italy, classmates' cheers welcomed two Ukrainian children into their new school.
As of April 1, nearly 40 million people still remained in Ukraine, either in their hometown, seeking refuge in cities with less fighting, or in transit trying to reach the border. In an effort to help relocate those who want to leave, Biden announced on March 26 that the United States plans to welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainians.
"All the world democracies have a responsibility to help,” Biden said in Warsaw, Poland.
NBC News
NBC News
As the fighting nears the conclusion of its sixth week, Russian leaders show no sign of backing down and Ukrainian leaders show no sign of giving up. Over the last month and a half, nearly a quarter of the Ukrainian population has left home, either to seek refuge in less wartorn areas of Ukraine or in bordering countries.
“Russia has attacked more than just our land and our cities. It went on a brutal offensive against our values. Basic human values,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at his March 16 address to Congress, where he played a graphic video of the destruction in the country to members of the House and Senate.
The United Nations estimates that ultimately the war will affect 18 million people in Ukraine. Of these, 12 million — almost a third of the country's population — are expected to require humanitarian assistance.
Those who have returned or chosen to stay face a daily onslaught of attacks. Their homes, schools, hospitals and businesses burn. According to a March 30 report by the U.N. refugee agency, over 13 million people are “estimated to be stranded in affected areas or unable to leave due to heightened security risks, destruction of bridges and roads, as well as lack of resources or information on where to find safety and accommodation.”
For those who remain and those who have returned, the day-to-day can be unfathomable.
Liubov Tsybulska, a violinist in Kharkiv, passes the time in a bomb shelter by turning to her music. In the near dark of the shelter, and sometimes with a clothespin to muffle the sound, she plays.
This is "what we do in bomb shelters when they bomb us from the sky."
— Liubov Tsybulska, Twitter
Sources
Satellite images from Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies; Refugee and internally displaced people data from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and International Organization for Migration; Border crossing data from United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs; Attacks data collected by NBC News
Video Editor:
Thomas Vollkommer
Video Graphics:
Tristan Bresnen
Photo Editor:
Julius Constantine Motal
Art Director:
Chelsea Stahl
