600k Ukrainians seek asylum in Russia: Migration service
Russia’s Federal Migration Service (FMS) says more than 600,000 of Ukrainians have appealed to the organization amid the humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine.
"Ukrainians appeal for temporary asylum or refugee status," Tass news agency quoted an FMS representative as saying on Friday.
At present about 2.6 million Ukrainians are in Russia, including 1.1 million from eastern Ukraine, which has seen months of clashes between the government in Kiev and pro-Russia forces.
The FMS further said nearly 19,000 Ukrainian citizens from the war-ravaged Donbas region, including 6,000 children, are residing “in 338 accommodation stations in Russia.”
The crisis in Ukraine arose when pro-European Union (EU) forces, including Western-backed radical nationalists, ousted then President Viktor Yanukovych in late February 2014 after he refused to sign an association agreement with the EU.
Kiev launched military operations in April the same year to crush the pro-Russia protests in Donetsk and Lugansk, two mainly Russian-speaking regions in eastern Ukraine.
The situation in the two regions started to get worse in May 2014, when residents overwhelmingly voted for rejoining Russia in referendums.
During peace talks in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk on February 11-12, the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine agreed on the withdrawal of heavy weapons from Ukraine’s front lines and a ceasefire. The two sides, however, have continued to engage in sporadic clashes.
According to UN figures, about 7,000 people have so far been killed in the conflict.
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