It is estimated that more than 7.1 million people they are displaced within Ukraine, posing a challenge that looms long after the war.

Most come from the east, as Moscow forces train their artillery in Donetsk province.

It is estimated that one-third of the Ukrainian population has been forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded last February, including more than 7.1 million internally displaced people, according to UN data, which illustrates the scale of a humanitarian crisis which has gone largely unnoticed as the war continues.

The amount of internally displaced persons dwarfs the 4.8 million Ukrainians who fled to Europe as refugees, according to the UN refugee agency, which described levels of displacement never seen since World War II.

While large swathes of the country were subjected to the brutality of the Russian invasion in its first few weeks, most of Ukraine’s displaced people now come from the east as that region becomes ethe center of the conflict.

Boarding trains and buses, civilians fled the cities and towns of eastern Ukraine, fleeing to the relative safety of the west and the northern capital, kiev.

Some left in humanitarian convoys, traveling on dangerous roads amidst the threat of gunfire or bombing.

Others left on foot, literally running to save their lives.

And as Russian forces now train their artillery in Donetsk province to the east with the aim of capturing the entire industrial region of Donbas every day. more people they are forced to leave their homes.

“The state was not prepared for such a scale of displaced people in many areas,” Vitaly Muzychenko, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Social Policy, at a press conference this week, announcing new plans to register displaced people for state benefits.

Accountability for the needy is a challenge: only three million people have been officially registered as internally displaced, although the real number is believed to be more than double.

The lack of international humanitarian support has further strained local resources.

This massive displacement has reshaped communities across the country, including those spared from the physical devastation of war.

Shelters have sprung up in public buildings, college dormitories have been converted, and some modular homes have been created shelter the displaced.

Most internally displaced people, such as refugees, are women and children, and many face escarcity of food, water and basic necessitiesaccording to UN experts.

Oksana Zelinska, 40, who was the director of a kindergarten in the southern city of Kherson, now occupied by Russian forces, fled in April with her two children, a colleague and that woman’s children in the city. the Slovak border.

Her husband remained in Kherson and would like to return, but said he will stay in the West for his children.

“When we got here, I needed to do something, it was hard and I didn’t want to sit down and get depressed,” he said. “I wanted to be useful.”

She began volunteering in the community kitchen she had used when she first arrived, peeling potatoes and preparing food for the dozen people who arrive each day for a hot meal.

Helping displaced people to return to their homes, or to find new ones, looms as one of Ukraine’s greatest challenges, regardless of the outcome of the war.

Some of their hometowns may not return to Ukrainian control.

Others being filmed could be almost completely destroyed, with homes, water lines and other vital infrastructure pulverized by the tactics of scorched earth of the Russian army.

The Ukrainian government has estimated its reconstruction needs at $ 750 billion.

This week, the president Volodymyr Zelensky he asked for the support of the allies, describing the effort as “a joint effort of the entire democratic world”.

On Tuesday, the United States joined more than 40 governments and multilateral organizations in signing a Framework Agreement at a conference in Switzerland to help mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars for Ukraine’s recovery, including long-term reconstruction.

It was by no means clear if and when those promises would materialize into funds.

But the host of the meeting, the president Ignazio Cassis of Switzerland, said the commitments “should give hope to the Ukrainian people and the certainty that they are not alone”.

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