The U.N. refugee agency says more than 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russian troops invaded the country

Children make up half of all refugees from the war in Ukraine, according to UNICEF and UNHCR. More than 1.1 million children have arrived in Poland, with hundreds of thousands also arriving in Romania, Moldova, Hungary Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said Wednesday that at least 2 million children have been forced to flee Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion. UNICEF and the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHR) said in a statement that children make up half of all refugees from the ongoing conflict that has continued for over a month.  

The war in Ukraine upends life for Ukraine's vulnerable children with many more separated from parents in the fighting.

Women and children fleeing Ukraine are at a heightened risk of falling into the hands of human traffickers who are exploiting the chaos and anonymity resulting from mass displacements and humanitarian crises, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor warned in a statement March 29.

More than 3.8 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion a month ago, UN figures showed March 27, but the flow of refugees has slowed down markedly. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said 3,821,049 Ukrainians had fled the country -- an increase of 48,450 from Saturday's figures. Around 90 percent of them are women and children, it added.

The Minister of Social Policy of Ukraine Maryna Lazebna said that today a formal proposal had been sent to 23 countries through diplomatic channels to conclude bilateral memoranda on protection of the rights of displaced children from vulnerable categories and a draft memorandum as well.

One month into the war in Ukraine, millions of people, mainly women and children, continue to flee their homes. As long as the conflict continues, the risk of them being targeted by criminal networks grows.

In this press release the UN Child Rights Committee asked States to provide core and integrated support to traumatised Ukrainian children, especially those who are unaccompanied.

Conflict-related traumas can trigger "elevations in heart rate, breathing and stress hormones related to the fight or flight response. Repeat exposure to toxic stress in that way can affect the developing brain of children, and it has lifelong consequences for learning, behavior and health," says Theresa Betancourt, a professor at the Boston College School of Social Work and director of the Research Program on Children and Adversity.