Another three million have been evacuated from eastern, southern and central Ukraine towards the West by train. It has been reported that at least 200,000 people have been evacuated via humanitarian corridors, including around 75,000 from the besieged city of Mariupol. These people are the most vulnerable, directly exposed to fighting all around them and almost completely cut off from water, food and medicine. On top of the 6.5 million IDPs, more than 12 million people are thought to be trapped in affected areas, unable or unwilling to leave their homes due to ongoing clashes, the destruction of transport links or a lack of information on what options they have. While efforts are being made to improve conditions in these sites, more support is needed to resource them properly.
Air raid shelters and metro stations are also a place of refuge. A growing number are moving to collective shelters - public buildings such as schools, churches, gyms and concert halls - where a lack of gender separation greatly increases the risk of gender-based violence. The cost of renting, particularly in western Ukraine, has sky-rocketed due to increased demand.
Most IDPs are sheltering with family, friends or in private rented accommodation in basements or underground car garages.
While the fiercest hostilities continue in eastern Ukraine, the conflict has expanded with attacks escalating in the west, including only 25km away from Poland's border. Multiple airstrikes hit Lviv on 26 March, a city sheltering over 200,000 IDPs. At least 6.5 million* people are estimated to have been internally displaced in Ukraine, according to the United Nations Protection Cluster.
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