SOME 1.4 million children have now fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24, meaning nearly one child a second has become a refugee, said the United Nations today.

International Organisation for Migrantion said more than three million people have now fled the embattled country. Nearly half of them are children.

“On average, every day over the last 20 days in Ukraine, more than 70,000 children have become refugees,” said James Elder, a spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, in Geneva.

That amounts to around 55 every minute, “so almost one per second”, he added, stressing that “this crisis in terms of speed and scale is unprecedented since World War II”.

Elder warned that “like all children driven from their homes by war and conflicts, Ukrainian children arriving in those border countries are at significant risk of family separation, violence, sexual exploitation and trafficking.

“They are in desperate need of safety, stability and child protection services.” – AFP, March 15, 2022.