The war is prompting comparisons with the Balkan wars of the 1900s and providing echoes of the vast population displacement that followed World War II
Refugees who recently crossed the border from Ukraine rest before moving on from a temporary camp in Palanca, Moldova, March 1, 2022. At least 660,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled Ukraine in the five days after Russia invaded — the most intense wave of European migration since at least the 1990s. (Laetitia Vancon/The New York Times)
ON THE UKRAINIAN-MOLDOVAN BORDER — The war in Ukraine has set off the fastest mass migration in Europe in at least three decades, prompting comparisons with the Balkan wars of the 1990s and providing echoes of the vast population displacement that followed World War II.
At least 660,000 people, most of them women and children, fled Ukraine for neighboring countries to the west in the first five days of Russia’s invasion, according to the United Nations refugee agency, which collated statistics recorded by national immigration authorities. And that figure does not include those displaced within Ukraine, or who fled or were ordered to evacuate to Russia.
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