The European continent is concerned that a full-blown invasion could lead to a major migrant crisis — the type not seen since World War II.
"If that is to happen, we're certainly talking about hundreds of thousands if not millions of refugees, and they will most likely be fleeing into Europe rather than Russia," Antonenko said.
"If you ended up with a Russian occupied Ukraine, then those would be longer term European refugees," added Rodger Baker, Stratfor's senior vice president for strategic analysis at Rane.In such a case, the lion's share of people may move overland to border countries: Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Romania.
But western European countries such as Germany, France and Britain could quickly feel the moral pressure to share the burden of what the U.K.'s defense secretary said would be the worst migrant crisis"since the war.
"As a government, we must be prepared for the worst-case scenario, and for some time the interior ministry has been taking steps to prepare us for the arrival of even a million people." Already, Poland is home to a sizeable Ukrainian community. Though few have claimed refugee status, Poland has issued around