March 3 (UPI) — More than a million Ukrainian refugees have fled their homeland since Russia launched its invasion a week ago, a United Nations official said, which is believed to be the quickest mass exodus in history.
The Ukrainians who have fled account for a little more than 2% of the country’s population.
Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, reported the figure and called for a cease-fire so those affected by the conflict can receive aid.
“In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of 1 million refugees from Ukraine to neighboring countries,” Grandi said in a tweet.
“For many millions more, inside Ukraine, it’s time for guns to fall silent so that life-saving humanitarian assistance can be provided.”
Grandi also said he will visit Romania, Moldova and Poland over the next few days to personally assess the Ukrainian refugee situations there and assess how their governments are handling the influx of people.
After several days of fighting, it appears that Russian troops have gained control of Kherson, the port city’s mayor said. Kherson, located in far southern Ukraine, is the largest Ukrainian city to have been seized by Russian forces so far.
“The occupiers are moving through the streets in heavy machinery,” a mayoral spokesperson told NPR, adding that Kherson’s mayor has spoken with Russian forces and asked them not to target civilians.
The spokesperson also said that “several hundred” people have been killed during the siege. Kherson is a strategic port city on the Dnieper River near the Black Sea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that his country’s defenses are continuing to hold off Russian attacks in the capital of Kyiv. A long Russian military convoy of vehicles has been pushing toward Kyiv for days this week.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that a large explosion went off in Kyiv and lit up the night sky. The explosion appeared to occur in a location far from the downtown area.
The Post also reported that Russian forces remain stalled away from Kyiv due to stiff Ukrainian resistance.
“We have nothing to lose but our own freedom,” Zelensky said, according to The Guardian.
Zelensky added that Ukraine is receiving daily arms shipments from international allies — and that he’s recently spoken to leaders Moon Jae-in of South Korea, Justin Trudeau of Canada and Qasym-Jomart Toqayev of Kazakhstan.
Late on Wednesday, the International Criminal Court called for Russia and Ukraine to obey international war rules after announcing it’s opened an investigation into the fighting in Ukraine.
“With an active investigation now underway, I repeat my call to all those engaged in hostilities in Ukraine to adhere strictly to the applicable rules of international humanitarian law,” ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement. “No individual in the Ukraine situation has a license to commit crimes within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.”
A second round of peace talks was scheduled to be held on Thursday in neighboring Belarus, Russian and Ukrainian officials said. The first talks were held on Monday, but ended quickly without any resolution. Zelensky had said on Wednesday that more talks are a “waste of time” unless Russian forces stop fighting in Ukraine.
“A solution will certainly be found, I have no doubt about it,” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday, according to the Russian state-run TASS news agency. “The conditions that we view as a minimum are no secret.”
Lavrov added, however, that Russian troops will continue fighting through the peace talks, saying that Moscow can’t let Ukraine “keep infrastructure facilities that threaten Russia.”
Lavrov also called the numerous sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion “some kind of a tax on independence” — and said that Moscow is not escalating attacks in Ukraine “for the sake of escalation.”
“It’s clear to everyone that World War III can only be a nuclear one,” he added. “However, I would like to point out that thoughts of a nuclear war are circling in the heads of Western politicians but not in the heads of Russians.”
