The European border agency Frontex has reported that over the past few weeks, more people have been returning to Ukraine from Europe than leaving the country.
On June 2, Frontex announced that in recent weeks more people had been returning to Ukraine than leaving the country, even though the war is still raging on.
In total, 2.3 million Ukrainians are estimated to have returned to their home country since the war first started, the agency said. In the last week of May alone, more than a quarter of a million Ukrainian nationals are recorded to have left EU territory, with many believed to have returned to their homeland.
Growing stability in Ukraine despite ongoing war
Frontex said in its report that the situation at Ukraine's border posts had also improved in recent weeks:
"Border traffic remains stable and there are no major border congestions", Frontex reported, painting a completely different picture from the miles-long queues recorded at the border in the first few weeks of the conflict.
"There are around 144 trucks with humanitarian aid entering Ukraine each day. Frontex continues to monitor refugee flows to facilitate border crossings and support evacuation corridors", the agency added.
The situation has slightly improved also inside the country, according to the agency's report, though the southeast of Ukraine continues to witness heavy bombardment. According to the IOM, the number of internally displaced people in the country had decreased for the first time since the beginning of the conflict.
The total number of internally displaced people is now estimated to be slightly over 7 million, representing a decrease of 11% compared to the previous month.
Millions of Ukrainians still in EU
According to data from Frontex, 5.3 million Ukrainian nationals have fled their country to the EU since the beginning of the war on February 24. The total number of displaced people who have entered the EU, including also non-Ukrainian nationals, has now reached 7 million.
Different countries have accepted varying numbers of war refugees. Poland and Romania are continuing to register the highest number of arrivals, with 147,000 Ukrainian refugees crossing the border to Poland and 32,800 crossing into Romania between May 25 and May 31 alone. Well over 3 million people have made the journey from Ukraine to Poland in total since the beginning of the war on February 24.
Germany and Slovakia have each taken in more than 700,000 refugees from Ukraine, with Slovakia also sharing a direct border with Ukraine. "History will never forget your solidarity to the Ukrainian people" European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a recent visit to Bratislava, Slovakia.
But elsewhere in Europe, there are also tens of thousands of Ukrainian nationals who had to escape the war in their country; in Italy, the total number of refugees from Ukraine is approximately 125,000, comprised of 65,481 women, 18,631 men and 41,088 minors.