Refugees cross the Ukrainian-Polish border in Korczowa, southeastern Poland
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Ukrainian refugees are turning up with frostbite due to the cold while others have mental health scars after facing bombardment, a Western official has said.
It comes as the Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its 15th day on Thursday with relentless shelling and missile strikes continuing in cities including Mariupol, Kharkiv and the capital Kyiv.
More than 2.2 million people have now fled Ukraine because of the Russian invasion, according to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR.
One official said some refugees have frostbite while others require mental health support after the terrifying ordeals they have endured.
“What we’re seeing is with the refugees now and the IDPs (internally displaced persons), you’re getting simple things like frostbite because people are walking,” the official said.
“You’re getting things like women who can’t get access to maternal healthcare, you’re getting people needing mental health support because they’ve just come from areas that have been targeted and bombed. So, the needs are going to keep shifting.”
Plummeting temperatures in Ukraine have lead to fears the humanitarian crisis there could worsen.
Sub-zero temperatures have hit large parts of the country, with snow and significant wind chill making conditions to flee even more treacherous.
The official said there had been a “change in the profile” of the people arriving at the borders of neighbouring countries in recent days.
The “first wave” of refugees fleeing Ukraine was made up of “people with resources” such as those with contacts in central Europe and beyond, allowing them to move on, the official said.
They were “very quickly moving on because these were people with resources, they had contacts elsewhere, so they came and they moved”.
But in the “second wave”, the official said immigration officials are starting to see “people who are very traumatised, they left without any resources”.
“They are very vulnerable and they need more direct support,” the official added.
Another official said those turning up more recently were the “more infirm, for example the elderly, the grandparents who people have left behind because they are not able to move around very easily”.
The UN has said the mass exodus of people from Ukraine was Europe’s fastest-growing refugee crisis since the Second World War.
Most escaping the conflict have found shelter in Poland and more than 200,000 have reached Hungary.
Slovakia has taken in more than 150,000 people from Ukraine since February 24 when Russian forces began shelling and bombarding Ukrainian cities.
Latest estimates from UN aid agencies suggest four million refugees are likely by the end of the war which represents about 10 per cent of Ukraine’s population.
