Ukraine war: Europe must brace for 100,000s of Ukrainian refugees this winter, says Jan Egeland
Europe must get ready to accept hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees this coming winter, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said in an interview with Euronews.
"It is really a choice between freeze or fleeing", Jan Egeland, NRC Secretary General, said. "Therefore very many people are voluntarily fleeing."
"Europe has to prepare for hundreds of thousands of new refugees this winter from Norway in the north to the southern European countries."
Nearly 7.9 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russian tanks rolled across the border in February.
The vast majority have escaped to neighbouring countries, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova, But significant numbers of refugees have been welcomed elsewhere in Europe.
Egeland described how a "terrible situation" faced civilians holding out in Ukraine, which has been "exacerbated" by devastating Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, knocking out power and water supplies.
"We're in a race against the clock," he said. "Very many of these frontline communities have received little or no assistance in recent months.
"I've been travelling all through the south and the east of Ukraine ... and every city you go to is dark and people are freezing."
Humanitarian organisations, such as the NRC, Red Cross and UNHCR, have scrambled to provide aid to civilians caught up in the fighting.
They have given out cash, clothing, food and other essential supplies, alongside shelter kits for those whose homes have been destroyed.
However, Egeland said, "millions of people have received little to no assistance".
One reason for this, he explained to Euronews, was that humanitarian organisations could not get "beyond the frontlines and into Russian-controlled
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