“Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan are not the world’s only major ‘refugee’ hosting nations. Ukraine too hosts enormous numbers of people who have had to leave their homes because of war. Millions fled their homes in 2014 after Russian operatives and tanks invaded Ukraine’s eastern regions and annexed Crimea. …According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy, 1.7 million Ukrainians are officially registered as [internally displaced persons].
“…The death and destruction caused by Russia’s occupation, in human terms, is horrific. Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy reported that 25,000 children live in towns and villages along the conflict line; they are still in insecure conditions. Because of Russian aggression, 68 children have been killed and 158 have been wounded over the last two years. …The conflict in the Donbas has affected the lives of more than half a million children in Ukraine. Each third child – 200,000 children – needs at least some psychological assistance.
“…The exodus from the east began immediately after the Revolution of Dignity drove Ukraine’s larcenous President Viktor Yanukovych back to Russia. Russians invaded, cities have been ransacked, and millions of dispossessed persons have been victimized. And Russia has not abated its aggression; the only reason it is not in Kyiv now is because of the Ukrainian military’s resistance.
“…This is a refugee catastrophe, but unlike those millions forced to flee Syria or Sudan, Ukraine’s dispossessed are invisible to the world. Imagine if 2 million Ukrainians had to live in camps in Poland. If this were the case, the world would finally see – and fully condemn-Russian President Vladimir Putin’s predation and flagrant breach of international law. …And Russia has yet to be brought before the United Nations for waging this terrible war against Ukraine.”
– Diane Francis, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center, writing on October 19 on the “New Atlanticist” blog in an article titled “Ukraine’s invisible refugees” (see http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/ukraine-s-invisible-refugees).