Europe must better share responsibility for refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UN high commissioner for refugees has said this morning.

Filippo Grandi told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on earlier today that handling the exodus of over 1.5 million people from Ukraine must be balanced “in a more structured manner”.

“Europe, in particular, has to think very hard, very seriously about how to share this responsibility of the response in a more structured manner”.

“This particular wave of refugees has resources and has connections,” but went on to highlight that as the conflict rages on, people who “have less resources [and] do not have connections in Europe,” will also continue to flee.

“There’ll be more of a responsibility for neighbouring countries, this is where we need a more structured system in the EU… UK, and maybe further afield — [in the] US, Canada and other countries.”

“I do hope that this in the end is the silver lining of this crisis, that Europe understands that any country can become recipient of large numbers of refugees [that] need the help of others,” he went on.