Some 4,000 Ukrainians seek refugee status in Russia - Medvedev
MOSCOW. June 5 (Interfax) - Approximately 4,000 citizens of Ukraine have already applied for refugee status in Russia, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a government session on Thursday.
"Whereas there were just several such requests previously, 4,000 people have applied recently. It is an unprecedented situation," he said.
However, "far from all people [who have been arriving from Ukraine] have requested refugee status," Medvedev said.
The prime minister admitted that "a whole number of [Russian] regions located near the border with Ukraine have found themselves in quite a complicated situation today."
As an example, Medvedev referred to Russia's Rostov region, where "flows of people" from Ukraine are heading to today.
"They are mainly children and people accompanying them. There are thousands of them. The number of the newly arrived grows by 3,000 people every day. The governor of the Rostov region called me today to discuss this issue," Medvedev said.
At the moment, the number of people who enter the Rostov region differs from the number of those who exit it by around 5,000 a day, he said.
"This has never happened before," he added.