Kyiv: Over 2 million people including 800,000 children fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion began on Ukraine.

According to UN reports, 1,204,00 people flees to Poland, 191,000 to Hungary, Slovakia has taken 141,000, Moldova has received 83,000, Romania-82,000, Russia has taken 99,300 and Belarus received 453 people.

More than 210,000 people including children have moved on from these countries to others in Europe, the UN says.

 “Parents are resorting to the most desperate, heart-breaking measures to protect their children. This includes sending their children away with neighbours and friends, to seek safety outside of Ukraine, while they stay home to protect their homes,” Irina Saghoyan from the NGO was quoted by BBC.

UN spokeswoman Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams, who is in Warsaw, it was mostly women and children making the crossing into Poland, with some facing waits of 24 hours. In some cases, children were travelling with distant relatives or family members who returned to Ukraine after dropping them off, BBC reported.

More than 800,000 Ukrainians, mainly ethnic Russians, have crossed the border into Russia. Others are fleeing to Poland, Belarus, or the Baltic states.

To get refugee status, they need to be Ukrainian citizens or people legally living in Ukraine, such as foreign students. The number of people displaced inside Ukraine itself has doubled to at least 260,000, according to the UN's Vincent Cochetel in Geneva.