110,000 flee to Russia from Ukraine: UN

Some 110,000 people have fled to Russia from Ukraine while more than 54,000 have been displaced inside the conflict-torn country, the UN said on Friday. ‘Since the start of 2014, 110,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Russia,’ Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UN’s refugee agency, told reporters. She later said that most had fled from the embattled eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, where Ukrainian forces are battling separatists from the Russian-speaking community. But she underlined that it was not possible to say whether most or all of those fleeing to neighbouring Russia were from Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population. Claims that Russian-speakers in Ukraine are under threat have been cited regularly by the rebels and Moscow. Only a relatively small proportion of those fleeing to Russia have formally asked the country for asylum, Fleming said. ‘Only 9,500 have requested asylum. Most people are seeking other forms of legal stay, often because they're concerned about complications involving seeking asylum or since there might be reprisals if they return to Ukraine,’ she said, without elaborating. Most of the most recent arrivals are clustered in the western Russian cities of Rostov-on-Don and Bryansk, near the Ukrainian border, said Fleming, according to a news agency.