Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered a significant rise in homelessness in the country, according to a new report.

The report, from UK-based charity Depaul International, says almost a quarter of those sleeping rough or in emergency shelters are people who have had to flee from their homes.

The exact number of homeless people in Ukraine is not known, but the report surveyed more than 200 people living on the street or in emergency shelters.

The findings highlight the toll the war has had on Ukraine’s civilians, with more than 3.5 million people internally displaced since the conflict started.

Many of the 6.2 million Ukrainian refugees across Europe are also at risk of homelessness.

Chief Executive of Depaul Ukraine Anna Skoryk told European media: “Every day more people lose their homes because of occupation, shelling or because they’re close to the frontline. We cannot help everyone alone.”

The United Nations reported in February that two million homes had been destroyed of badly damaged.

Russian forces continue to advance in eastern Ukraine, prompting the evacuation from the city of Pokrovsk of about 20,000 people in the past month.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy warned the UK Labour Party conference recently that the challenges posed by the war could deepen significantly over the next two years.

Of the homeless people interviewed by Depaul, 69 per cent were men and nearly half were aged between 18 and 45.

Former prisoners were also at particular risk, making up 31 per cent of those interviewed.

Women and children receive more help – in the form of public shelters, international aid programmes and refuge abroad – than male citizens between 18 and 60, who are not allowed to leave Ukraine under wartime conscription laws.

There were fewer people aged over 45 on the streets because they were more likely to have medical conditions or would be less able to cope with Ukraine’s harsh winters – and more likely to be hospitalised or die, the Depaul report said.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian government has issued a draconian decree in breach of EU law that cancels state funded shelter for refugees from western Ukraine, leaving many homeless, according to a report from the NGO Human Rights Watch.

Approximately 3,000 refugees from Ukraine are affected, the majority women and children, according to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which has been monitoring the situation for Ukrainian refugees affected by the decree.

Lydia Gall, senior Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the Hungarian government should immediately repeal the decree.

“The Hungarian government has stooped to a new low with this cruel law that is putting thousands of people who fled the war in Ukraine on the streets,” she said.

“The European Commission should use all instruments at its disposal to make Budapest scrap the law and fulfill its duties as an EU member state.”

The new decree, issued in June 2024, entered into force on August 21. It limits access to state-funded housing to Ukrainian refugees whose registered residence is in what the Hungarian authorities deem a war-torn area, effectively deeming other parts of Ukraine safe to return to.

The decree amends a June 2023 decree that had already restricted eligibility to state-funded housing for Ukrainian refugees to those deemed “vulnerable”: pregnant women, children under 18, people with disabilities, and those aged 65 and older.

Almost 6.2 million Ukrainian refugees had been registered across Europe by the end of July 2024, according to the UNHCR.

The agency said the war had caused the largest population displacement crisis since World War II, with nearly a third of the population forced to flee their homes.

Another 571,000 Ukrainians are exiled outside of Europe, bringing the global total of this community to 6.74 million people.

Additionally, 3.7 million people are internally displaced within Ukraine’s borders, according to the United Nations.

Ukraine had a population of 43.5 million in 2021 before the current conflict with Russia began in February 2022. It now counts only 37.9 million inhabitants.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the conflict has claimed the lives of 11,662 civilians between 24 February 2022 and mid-August 2024.

Among the victims are 639 children. Additionally, 24,207 civilians have been injured, including 1,577 children.

The war has also shattered the Ukrainian economy, rolling back development gains made over the past years and plunging a quarter of the population into poverty, according to the latest Annual Report of the United Nations in Ukraine, published in April 2024.

Read the full Depaul report here: new report