Russian invasion has forced 6.5 million Ukrainians to flee country, UN says

Refugees stay in a group after fleeing the war from neighbouring Ukraine at the border crossing in Palanca, Moldova, on 10 March, 2022. AP - Sergei Grits

More than 120 million people have been forcibly displaced by war, violence and persecution – a number the UN's refugee agency describes as a "terrible indictment on the state of the world". More than 6.5 million people have been displaced in Ukraine alone, the UNHCR reported on Thursday, World Refugee Day.

Originally known as Africa Refugee Day, World Refugee Day was marked for the first time on a global scale on 20 June 2001 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.