UN: Over 80% of Ukrainian refugees seek to return home

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that more than 80 per cent of Ukrainian citizens who left the country after the beginning of the Russian special military operation seek to return to Ukraine.

Only 13 per cent of Ukrainian refugees intend to return during the next three months, TASS reports on September 23 with reference to the UNHCR report.

Earlier, the UN noted that about two-thirds of all Ukrainian refugees plan to stay in other countries until the end of hostilities in their country.

UNHCR interviewed almost 5,000 Ukrainian refugees in a number of European countries, namely, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania and Slovakia from May through June 2022.

According to the authorities, the Ukrainian population reached about 41.13 million people, excluding Crimea, Sevastopol, and the so-called "DNR (Donetsk People Republic) and LNR" (Luhansk People's Republic) territories controlled by Russia as of February 1, 2022.

About 10 million border crossings from Ukraine to Europe were registered from late February to mid-August 2022, the UNHCR said.

Meanwhile, the border was crossed about four million times in the opposite direction - some are already returning home. Moreover, some people have moved to Russia or other regions within the country.