The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that 2.6 million Ukrainians have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in their country.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Ukraine has been forced to contend with an influx of refugees from across its borders as well as internally displaced persons (IDPs). Most of these IDPs are from eastern Ukraine, where they have fled shelling and fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces.
On July 20, 2013, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that Spain would be accepting nearly 2,000 Ukrainian refugees into its country over a period of three years. The announcement came on the heels of a visit by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to Madrid in April 2013 during which he pleaded for assistance from Spain and other EU members regarding what he called Ukraine's "humanitarian crisis."
Spain already hosts several thousand Ukrainians who arrived through legal channels and has previously agreed to accept more than 1,500 more under similar circumstances.