The Wall Street Journal reports:

More than 1.45 million people have left Ukraine since Russia invaded the country nine days ago, the International Organization for Migration said on Saturday, sparking what the United Nations agency described as the fastest and largest displacement of people in Europe since World War II.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine last week, large numbers of Ukrainians have fled, most heading west and toward eastern members of the European Union—Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia—that have pledged assistance.

Around half of the refugees have crossed into Poland, whose border-control agency said on Saturday that 827,600 people had entered from Ukraine since Feb. 24, when the Russian invasion began. The first seven hours of Saturday saw 33,700 arrivals, more than the previous day, according to the agency.

In the short time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more asylum seekers have crossed into the EU than in all of 2015, when some 1.3 million arrived from the Middle East and elsewhere in a wave of migration that tested the bloc’s solidarity and placed pressure on leaders including former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. [Continue reading…]