Muristek
Kyiv, March 3
More than one million people have fled Ukraine following Russia's invasion, in the swiftest refugee exodus this century, the United Nations said on Thursday, as Russian forces pressed their assaults on the country's second-largest city and two strategic seaports.
The tally the UN refugee agency released was reached on Wednesday and amounts to more than 2 per cent of Ukraine's population being forced out of the country in seven days. The mass evacuation could be seen in Kharkiv, a city of about 1.5 million people where residents desperate to escape falling shells and bombs crowded the city's train station and pressed onto trains, not always knowing where they were headed.
Britain's Defence Ministry said Mariupol, a large city on the Azov Sea, was encircled by Russian forces. The status of another vital port, Kherson, a Black Sea shipbuilding city of 2,80,000, remained unclear. The mayor said there were no Ukrainian forces in Kyiv— but he said the Ukrainian flag was still flying over it. — AP
We aim to stop Ukraine from joining NATO, says Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei LavrovMoscow: The Russian military operation against Ukraine is aimed, among other things, at ensuring that Kyiv does not join NATO, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian state television on Thursday. Reuters
Kherson under control, claims Russia
Moscow claims to have taken complete control of Kherson, which would be the biggest city to fall in the invasion thus far Russian forces have renewed effort to seize Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, say Ukrainian officials Investigators from the International Criminal Court set off for the war-torn country to probe possible war crimes