Ukraine's Refugee Crisis Is About To Explode

In Focus: Ukraine's Refugee Crisis -- Radio Free Europe

Lyudmila Denisenko endured weeks of deadly shootouts between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian insurgents in her home city of Slovyansk, the epicenter of the separatist conflict ravaging eastern Ukraine.

But when a children's hospital was shelled two weeks ago, her patience finally snapped.

She and her family fled for the relative safety of Izyum, a small town 50 kilometers northwest of Slovyansk.

"We came here with nothing," she recently told RFE/RL in Izyum's City Hall, where she was applying for temporary accommodation and basic supplies. "We could no longer stay. The children's hospital was bombed, the train station was bombed, the bus station was bombed. We hitchhiked all the way here."

Like Denisenko, thousands of people have fled eastern Ukraine in recent weeks.

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More News On Ukraine's Growing Refugee Crisis

Ukrainians flee life in a battle zone -- Washington Post
Ukraine's humanitarian crisis worsens as tens of thousands flee combat in east -- The Guardian
Ukraine Families Flee Into the Forest to Escape Brutal Fighting in Sloviansk -- Daily Beast
Evacuating Children Along a Dangerous Ukraine Route -- New York Times

My Comment: The Russian press is reporting that there are almost 70,000 refugees in the Rostov region of Russia alone. But what worries everyone is that these numbers are about to explode .... eastern Ukraine's water supply is now threatened, and it could impact 4 million civilians .... Ukraine fighting threatens water supply to four million: OSCE (Reuters). If these water supplies are stopped .... expect a million refugees (or more) within days.