MOSCOW, July 18 (RIA Novosti) – The number of Ukrainian refugees given temporary accommodation in Russia has reached more than 25,500, a representative of Russia's interagency crisis management group told RIA Novosti on Friday.
"As of Friday morning, 25,600 Ukrainian refugees were accommodated in 384 temporary settlements. Some 14 settlements were created in the past day," the source said.
Approximately 33,000 Ukrainians had applied for refugee status and temporary shelter as of mid-July, according to Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS).
Russia’s Children’s Rights Ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said earlier Russia has already hosts 180,000 Ukrainian refugees, including 21,000 children, in 60 regions.
Since June, thousands of Ukrainian refugees have been forced to leave their native country and seek shelter in neighboring Russia due to ongoing battles between pro-Kiev forces and independence supporters in the country’s east.
According to recent UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates, about 110,000 people have fled Ukraine to Russia since the beginning of the crisis.
Some 1.2 million Ukrainian citizens are already living in Russia, excluding Crimea, according to the FMS.
