Here in Kiev, the thousands of refugees who have fled eastern Ukraine are invisible. It’s impossible to spot them on the streets: They don’t live in UN tents, or stand in lines for subsidized meals. They look just like everybody else. Legally, they do not exist—after all, it should be impossible to be a refugee in one’s own country.

But as a result of the unrest that has overtaken the country for the past several months, thousands of Ukrainians have fled their homes. I recently met one of them, 28-year-old Eugenia, in a crowded café in Kyiv’s bustling downtown—the city has all but returned to business-as-usual since the revolution. Still, Eugenia lowered her voice and glanced around as she began telling me of how she fled her hometown of Mariupol, in the rebellious Donetsk province. (Eugenia asked that I not publish her last name as her mother is still in Mariupol.)

“I want to get back so bad, but they will kill me,” she said. “People like me are disappearing there all the time. I even saw guys stopping a car and kidnapping a pro-Ukraine activists just in the middle of the street.”

The death toll in eastern Ukraine, where the vast majority of the fighting has taken place, has climbed to well over 200, making this the most violent crisis Ukraine has seen since World War II. The number of internal refugees also continues to rise rapidly. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says the crisis has displaced an estimated 10,000 civilians; most are from Crimea, and almost one-third are children. Ukrainian activists in Donetsk say that the amount of internal refugees from their region might also be in the thousands, but it’s harder to measure because unlike Crimeans, internal refugees don’t have to cross a border.

Ukrainians have fled their homes for a number of reasons, all stemming from the tenuous political situation. “People cite fear of persecution because of ethnicity or religious beliefs or, in the case of journalists, human rights activists and among intellectuals, due to their activities or professions. Others say they could no longer keep their businesses open,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told journalists in Geneva.