UN says the Ukrainian refugee crisis amid Russia's invasion has exceeded 'any worst-case scenario planning'

• The UN said the Ukrainian refugee crisis has exceeded "any worst-case scenario planning."
• Monday's remarks come as some 10 million Ukrainians have now been forced to leave their homes.

The United Nations anticipated a devastating refugee crisis would spawn after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. On Monday, it said what has happened so far has exceeded the "worst-case scenario."

"The scale of human suffering and forced displacement due to the war far exceeds any worst-case scenario planning," António Vitorino, director general of the UN's International Organization for Migration, said in a statement on Monday.

He said the UN's response to those internally displaced within Ukraine is the "top priority."

"Our teams have been reaching thousands of people with essential aid, but we need hostilities to cease in order to be able to reach people in severely affected areas," Vitorino said.

Earlier in March, the UN said the war would create "an overwhelming burden" for neighboring countries that receive Ukrainian refugees.

At the time, it estimated that by July 2022 there could be nearly 4 million refugees flooding across Ukraine's borders and into neighboring countries — with 1.5 million expected in Poland alone.

"At this rate, the situation looks set to become Europe's largest refugee crisis this century," UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said in a statement on March 1.

As of Monday, some 10 million Ukrainians have already been forced to leave their homes, according to data from the UN's International Organization for Migration. Nearly 6.5 million of those individuals are displaced within Ukraine, while over 3.5 million have fled to neighboring countries, the agency's data said.

Those who have fled account for nearly a fourth of the 44 million people who were living in Ukraine as of 2020, according to the World Bank.

The latest UN figures show that Poland has already taken in over 2 million Ukrainian refugees, with other countries, including Romania, Moldova, Hungary, and Slovakia, have taken in hundreds of thousands of people.

The UN has also cautioned that the updated figures of internally displaced Ukrainians still don't tell the full story of the humanitarian impact the war has caused.

"Over 12 million people are estimated to be stranded in affected areas or unable to leave due to heightened security risks, destruction of bridges and roads, as well as lack of resources or information on where to find safety and accommodation," the UN said in a statement on Friday.

As the tally of refugees and internally displaced Ukrainians grows, Russian forces continue to bombard cities — killing civilians and obliterating infrastructure.

And as the death toll mounts, so do accusations of war crimes from the international community.

Russia is "destroying everything, bombarding and killing everybody in an indiscriminate manner," the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell Fontelles said on Monday.