United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Russian strikes on energy sector have not caused mass departure of Ukrainians

More intense Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure during the winter have not led to an increase in people leaving the country, although power and water outages are now cited more often among the reasons for departure.

Source: Bernadette Castel-Hollingsworth, UNHCR's Representative in Ukraine, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine

Details: According to Castel-Hollingsworth, UNHCR monitors the situation daily at 30 border crossing points and has not recorded an increase in the number of people leaving Ukraine.

However, she said the reasons for leaving have changed: people increasingly mention problems with electricity and water supply, something that had not previously been observed.

Castel-Hollingsworth said that the overall number of people leaving had not increased, but the reasons were now more closely linked to energy issues than before, including water supply problems. She noted that concerns about water supply were something new that had not been seen in 2024.

She also said that there is no single dominant group among those leaving the country or becoming internally displaced.

According to Castel-Hollingsworth, in September and October there was a slight increase in departures among young men following legislative changes introduced in August, but that trend did not continue.

UNHCR data shows that those leaving are most often families, single parent households, people with children, vulnerable individuals and elderly people.

The agency added that it continues to monitor population movements daily both at the border and inside Ukraine in order to respond quickly to humanitarian needs during the war and the ongoing energy crisis.

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