Over 11,000 Ukrainian refugees have found employment in Russia, according to the Russian Deputy Labour and Social Security Minister, Alexei Vovchenko, reports Interfax.

The conflict between the militias of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics and the Ukrainian army has led to a mass exodus of Ukrainians from the south-east of the country to Russia. Numerous inspections by Russian and European officials in the regions of Russia bordering Ukraine show that there are a large number of displaced people, but exact figures are unavailable.

Mr Vovchenko stated: "Over 76,000 Ukrainian citizens are registered with the employment services. Over half of them would like to get temporary work permits and 15,000 would like to get permanent jobs. A total of 11,144 people have now found jobs and some 500-600 refugees find jobs every day.”

Earlier this month, the head of the Council for Human Rights’ Commission for Migration Policies, Yevgeniy Bobrov, criticised existing restrictions on work permits for refugees, saying all Ukrainian refugees must be allowed to work in Russia without requiring additional documents, reports rt.com.

Mr Vovchenko stated: "We are ready to increase the employment quotas for this category of people (refugees) ... Our task is to provide employment to at least 60% of the refugees from Ukraine.”