UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — Over 1.3 million Ukrainians have become internally displaced and more than 860,000 have fled the country since the armed conflict in Ukraine broke out last April, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report Tuesday.
Kiev unleashed a military crackdown on eastern Ukraine's independence supporters in April 2014. The fighting has killed over 6,400 people, according to UN figures.
"On 27 May, the number of IDPs registered by the Ministry of Social Policy (MoSP) reached 1,315,625 people. This is an increase of almost 16,000 people compared to the previous week," the report said.
Data from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) included in the report shows that "by 28 May about 867,000 Ukrainians had sought asylum, residence permits or other forms of legal stay in neighbouring countries."
The OCHA report revealed that Ukraine is in the top ten of states globally in terms of its number of IDPs, according to the Internal Displacement monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Despite several attempts by Kiev forces and independence supporters in eastern Ukraine to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, the fighting in Donbass continues.
