15% Of Ukraine’s Population Internally Displaced

More than 6.6 million people are currently internally displaced in Ukraine.

This was announced by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Ukraine’s Communications Officer Varvara Zhluktenko, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.

"According to data from the latest rapid representative assessment of the general population in Ukraine that the IOM conducted from 12 to 23 July, more than 6.6 million people are currently internally displaced in Ukraine. This figure is 15% of the total population of Ukraine, and it has increased slightly compared with the end of June, when our organization counted about 6.3 million internally displaced persons," Zhluktenko said during a news briefing at the Ukraine Media Center in Kyiv on Friday.

According to her, people continue to leave the eastern, southern, and northern parts of Ukraine.

"Meanwhile, 5.5 million previously displaced persons have returned home. The absolute majority of them were displaced within Ukraine and 16% of them returned from abroad. The main regions to which they are returning are Kyiv and the Kyiv region, as well as the Kharkiv region, the Odesa region, and the Chernihiv region," Zhluktenko said.

According to the IOM, 60% of the people who had jobs before their forced displacement have lost their jobs. Nine percent of internally displaced persons have not had any income since the beginning of the full-scale war and 35% reported that their family's monthly incomes (household incomes) have not exceeded UAH 5,000 in all these months (this is even less than Ukraine’s minimum monthly wage of UAH 1,500).

"Forty-four percent of the people surveyed by us, representatives of all groups, said that they would need help with home insulation and repair or replacement of windows. Among them, 25% said that they needed significant repairs. Twenty-six percent of internally displaced persons fear that they will have to leave their current housing because it is not adapted and does not have sufficient heating and thermal insulation to live in throughout winter," Zhluktenko said.