The number of refugees from Ukraine registered for temporary protection or similar national protection schemes in Europe reached 4 million 751.07 thousand as of November 22, 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on its website.
In the month since Oct. 25, the increase was 324,32,000, up from 242,900 and 214,300 in the previous two months, respectively, and about 1.8 million in total since the end of May.
The largest increase over the past month showed Germany – about 206.5 thousand, Poland – about 38.9 thousand, France – about 14 thousand, Romania – 11.7 thousand and the Czech Republic – about 9.5 thousand.
According to data of the UNHCR, collected from the national governments, the most refugees with the status of temporary protection in Poland – 1 million 507.89 thousand, given that the country from Ukraine, according to the Polish border service, since the war arrived 8.008 million people, and in the opposite direction went to Ukraine 6.196 million.
They are followed by Germany and the Czech Republic, where the number of registered for temporary protection of refugees from Ukraine was 1 million 21.67 thousand and 462.41 thousand, respectively.
Italy still occupies the fourth place – 164,17 thousand (3,5 thousand more), and Spain closes the third place – 154,46 thousand (5,2 thousand more).
Great Britain follows after that – 146.2 thousand (7.8 thousand increase), and Bulgaria with amount of 146.03 thousand (3.3 thousand growth) – the only country where the number of registered with temporary protection is much more than the number of registered refugees from Ukraine – 51.86 thousand.
There are more than 100 thousand Ukrainians registered for temporary protection in two countries – France and Slovakia: 118.99 thousand (data as of October, 21) and 101.24 thousand (increase by 2,7 thousand).
From 50 thousand to 100 thousand refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status are also in Romania – 87.89 thousand, Austria – 86.90 thousand (an increase of 2.1 thousand), the Netherlands – 79.25 thousand (data of September 30), Lithuania – 70.67 thousand (an increase of less than 2 thousand, as for other countries below, where the dynamics are not specified)
Switzerland is also among them – 69.61 thousand (an increase of 2.8 thousand), Ireland – 64.28 thousand (an increase of 3.8 thousand), Belgium – 59.53 thousand and Portugal – 52.88 thousand (data of October 3).
Sweden comes next with indicators of 25 to 50 thousand – 48.36 thousand, Finland – 43.81 thousand, Latvia – 42.82 thousand (an increase of 2.1 thousand),
Estonia – 38.73 thousand, Denmark – 34.95 thousand, Hungary – 32.27 thousand, Norway – 32.10 thousand are also in this category.
From 10 to 25 thousand refugees from Ukraine with temporary protection status in Greece – 20.0 thousand, Croatia – 19.13 thousand and Cyprus – 18.29 thousand.
In addition, the UN statistics on refugees from Ukraine received temporary protection status in Slovenia – 8.07 thousand, Montenegro – 6.96 thousand, Luxembourg – 6.76 thousand, Iceland – 1.77 thousand, Malta – 1.54 thousand, Serbia and Kosovo – 1.09 thousand and Liechtenstein – 0.36 thousand.
The UN also indicates countries with registered refugees from Ukraine, but no data on their status: Turkey (data of May 19) – 145 thousand, Moldova – 96.65 thousand, Georgia – 25.20 thousand, North Macedonia – 6.39 thousand, Azerbaijan – 3.94 thousand, Albania – 2.51 thousand, Armenia – 0.36 thousand and Bosnia and Herzegovina – 0.13 thousand.
The UN separately indicates Russia and Belarus, where the Ukrainian border was crossed by 2 million 852.4 thousand and 16.71 thousand people, respectively, but since October 3, the data for Russia are no longer updated, while for Belarus they are even older. According to the UN, the Russian Federation recorded all who crossed the border, while 16.43 thousand – in Belarus. There are no data on their status, as well as data on the Ukrainian border crossing in the opposite direction.
According to the UNHCR data as of November 22, a total of 15.592 million people left Ukraine since the beginning of the war (not counting the flow of people into the country), of which 7.584 million left for Poland, 2.852 million for Russia (data of October 3), 1.782 million for Hungary, 1.557 million for Romania, 953.9 thousand for Slovakia, 697.9 thousand for Moldova and 16.7 thousand for Belarus.
At the same time, according to the UN, from February 28 to November 22, 7.939 million people entered Ukraine (excluding Hungary, Russia and Belarus).
“Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, almost a third of Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes. To date, this is one of the largest displacement crises in the world. In Ukraine, some 6.5 million people were internally displaced as of Oct. 27 as a result of the war,” indicates UNHCR, which increased its estimate of internally displaced people by 0.3 million.
UNHCR indicates that by mid-2021, there were only 53,47,000 Ukrainian refugees worldwide seeking appropriate status, including 36,49,000 in Europe.
The Ukrainian diaspora in the world as of mid-2020 was estimated by UNHCR at 6.1 million, including 5 million in Europe.
For 2 days 9 vessels with 162 thousand tons of agricultural products for the countries of Africa, Asia and Europe departed from Big Odessa ports, the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine informs.
“In particular, the bulk carrier BOZBURUN – M with 40 thousand tons of wheat for Ethiopia departed today. This is already the eighth vessel chartered by the UN World Food Programme as part of the assistance to countries in Africa and Asia,” the Telegram channel said.
In the ports of Greater Odessa under the processing of 26 ships. They are loaded with 1 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products.
Since August 1, 475 ships left the ports of Big Odessa, which exported 11.2 million tons of Ukrainian food products to Asia, Europe and Africa.
Energy Minister of Ukraine Herman Haluschenko called on Europe to use the free capacity of Ukrainian underground gas storages (UGS).
“Gas prices are at the lowest level in several months. A great opportunity to use Europe’s largest underground gas storage facilities with 15 billion cubic meters of free capacity. Additional gas volumes will be needed this winter,” he wrote on Twitter.
According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, as of October 24, gas reserves in the EU’s UGS facilities rose to 93.79%. The growth for the last reporting day amounted to 0.16 percentage points. In absolute terms, more than 100 billion cubic meters have been accumulated in UGS.
Also, LNG stocks in the tanks of receiving terminals increased to the maximum level in three years. European LNG terminals in October operate at around 61% capacity. In September and August – 59%.
France, Germany and Spain are faced with another increase in the number of people infected with coronavirus, and the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that the pandemic is not over yet and control of the virus is necessary, El Mundo newspaper writes.
“The World Health Organization and the European Union warned this week that the pandemic is not over yet and that people’s health must be protected, especially among the most vulnerable populations. The WHO is again seeing a growing number of covid infections in Europe, this indicates another wave of the virus,” writes edition with reference to the organization.
In addition, WHO held a new quarterly meeting on the situation with COVID-19, which discussed the issue of maintaining an international state of emergency due to the pandemic. The decision will be announced in the coming days.
According to the organization, 3 million cases of COVID-19 infection were confirmed in the world last week, the lowest figure this year. The number of deaths was 8.8 thousand, this is the second lowest figure in 2022.
Meanwhile, according to El Mundo, in Spain, all indicators of COVID-19 have increased over the past week: the incidence is skyrocketing in people over 59, many of them end up in hospitals in intensive care units.
The Ministry of Health of the country again publishes weekly statistics on coronavirus, according to which 587 patients with covid have been admitted to hospitals in Spain since last Friday. In total, there are 3.3 thousand people, 174 of them are in the intensive care unit.
The situation is no better in Germany: people with the Omicron strain BA.4 and BA.5 are hospitalized there. According to the Association of Hospitals of the country, medical institutions are now working at the limit of their capabilities.
In this context, discussions on the mandatory wearing of masks indoors have resumed in Germany, and the Minister of Health of the Republic, Karl Lauterbach, has called on the federal states to reintroduce the mask regime in the indicated places.
In turn, France is launching a free flu vaccination campaign in the hope of reducing the number of cases, especially at a time when the number of people infected with coronavirus is rising. First of all, people over 65 years of age, pregnant women, people with third-degree obesity (BMI over 40) and patients with certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes, are recommended to be vaccinated.
The latest statistics on the incidence of coronavirus in Belgium confirm scientific models about the onset of a new “wave” of COVID-19 by mid-October, the Sciensano Public Health Institute said.
Updated data from Sciensano released on Tuesday indicates a significant increase in coronavirus infections and COVID-19 hospitalizations.
Last week, daily infections reached an average of 2823 cases, which means an increase of 26% compared to the previous one. During the same period, an average of 94 patients were hospitalized daily. This figure rose by 28% over the week.
The vast majority of cases (92.3%) are infected with a subvariant of the Omicron BA.5 strain. The number of new cases of the disease reached 306 per 100 thousand inhabitants in 14 days.
The average daily number of deaths from coronavirus has increased to almost four, a 42% increase from the previous week. Since the beginning of the pandemic in Belgium, 32,690 people have died from COVID-19.
In the meantime, in France, in connection with the increase in infections with the coronavirus, the issue of resuming the mandatory wearing of protective masks is being considered, Brigitte Autrans, chairman of the French Committee for the Monitoring of Sanitary Risks (Covars), said Tuesday on the RMC radio station.
“All indicators are growing: positive tests, the number of hospitalizations, visits to the emergency rooms of hospitals, and even an increase in hospitalizations in intensive care units is planned. That is, yes, this is the eighth” wave, “Professor Otran stated.
“We really need to wear masks,” she said.
Azerbaijani gas supplies to Europe will increase by 40% to 11.5 billion cubic meters in 2022, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.
“In 2022, our export will reach 22 billion cubic meters, of which 11.5 billion cubic meters will be supplied to consumers in Europe. In 2021, 8.2 billion cubic meters was supplied to Europe. This means a 40% increase in the supplies in 2022,” Aliyev said at the ceremony for putting into commercial operation the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) in Sofia on Saturday.
In accordance with the agreements with the European Union, Azerbaijan plans to at least double its gas export to Europe by 2027.
For that purpose, Baku has begun consultations with its partners on the issue of expansion of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) to 32 billion cubic meters of gas a year and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to 20 billion cubic meters of gas a year, Aliyev said.
“We have already begun consultations with our partners on the expansion of the TANAP from 16 billion cubic meters to 32 billion cubic meters and the TAP from 10 billion cubic meters to 20 billion cubic meters. Because without it it will be difficult to ensure additional supplies,” the president said.
Aliyev said Azerbaijan has the capabilities to increase the gas export volumes by starting extraction at some other gas deposits.
