EU announces all member countries will take in Ukrainian refugees for up to three years without needing to apply for asylum - as queues stretch back EIGHT MILES at Ukraine-Poland border and total number of refugees hits 368,000
- 27 nations in EU decided unanimously to accept Ukrainian refugees without asylum applications on Sunday
- Nearly 370,000 frightened Ukrainians have already fled the Russian invasion for neighbouring countries
- Queues at the border with Poland stretched back more than eight miles during humanitarian crisis
- Women and children rode trains, cars and ferries from cities to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania
- European leaders are bracing for an exodus of up to 4million in biggest European conflict since 1945
By LAURENCE DOLLIMORE and JACK WRIGHT and WILL STEWART FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 07:21 AEDT, 28 February 2022 | UPDATED: 07:27 AEDT, 28 February 2022
The EU will take in Ukrainian refugees without asking them to apply for asylum first, it was announced tonight, as hundreds of thousands of terrified citizens continue to flee their homes amid the ongoing Russian invasion.
The decision was agreed unanimously between all countries in the 27-nation bloc on Sunday, following a meeting of its interior ministers.
The open-door-style policy will remain in place for up to three years in a bid to tackle what is fast becoming Europe's worst humanitarian crisis in decades.
It comes as nearly 370,000 frightened Ukrainians have already fled the Vladimir Putin's forces for neighbouring countries, with queues at the border with Poland stretching back more than eight miles.
But Britain is yet to commit to welcoming such refugees unconditionally, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson so far only allowing entry to those with settled families already living in the country.
It means scores of desperate Ukrainians who do not have a connection to the UK will still be denied refuge in Britain. When this was pointed out to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss this morning, she was asked if the policy would be changed.
She said: 'We are looking urgently at what we can do. We're working with European partners about how we support refugees who are leaving Ukraine. So, yes, is the answer.'
It comes as huddled masses of Ukrainian women and children escaping Russian bombs today rode trains, cars and ferries from cities including Lviv in the country's west to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.
Loved ones have been torn apart in the biggest European conflict since the Second World War, as women said goodbye to their husbands after Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky ordered men aged 18-60 to stay behind and fight Kremlin forces.
Families drove to Vysne Nemecke in Slovakia, while the line of vehicles at the Poland-Ukraine border stretched 8.7 miles, and those fleeing had to endure long waits in freezing temperatures overnight. Over 100,000 people have crossed into Poland alone, according to Polish officials.
Amid the rush to escape the bombs and tanks, there was also what looked like a trickle of brave men and women who want to head home to defend Ukraine or help others do so. At a border crossing in southern Poland, Associated Press journalists spoke to people in a line heading against the tide. They included a group of some 20 Ukrainian truck drivers who wanted to face combat.
Refugees from Ukraine arrive to the railway station in Przemysl, Poland, Sunday, February 27, 2022
People coming from Ukraine descend from a ferry boat to enter Romania after crossing the Danube river at the Isaccea-Orlivka border crossing between Romania and Ukraine on February 26, 2022
Ukrainian refugees arrive at Zahonyi railway station close to the Hungarian-Ukrainian border on February 27, 2022
Refugees from Ukraine sit in a bus near the Korczowa border crossing, Poland, Sunday, February 27, 2022
Refugees make their way through snow blizzard, at the Medyka border crossing, in Poland, February 27, 2022
A couple embrace prior to the woman boarding a train carriage leaving for western Ukraine, at the railway station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, Sunday, February 27, 2022
Huddled masses of Ukrainian women and children escaping Russian bombs rode trains, cars and ferries from cities including Lviv in the country's west to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania
Refugees from Ukraine arrive to the railway station in Przemysl, Poland, February 27, 2022
Refugees from Ukraine arrive to the railway station in Przemysl, Poland, February 27, 2022
Astonishing videos show a vast exodus at the city's railway station as Ukrainian civilians race to neighbouring countries to escape Vladimir Putin's forces
Huddled crowds of devastated Ukrainian women and children fleeing the Russian invasion last night rode trains from Lviv in the country's west to NATO ally Poland
A Slovak soldier carries a baby in car seat as people fleeing Ukraine arrive to Slovakia, at border crossing in Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia, February 27, 2022
A woman checks clothes from volunteers aid as people fleeing Ukraine arrive to Slovakia, at border crossing in Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia, February 27, 2022
Ukrainians arrive at Zahonyi railway station close to the Hungarian-Ukrainian border on February 27, 2022
Photographs from the Ukrainian-Slovak border at the Velke Slemence border crossing, February 27, 2022
Two refugee African students comfort each-other after they manage to pass the Romanian-Ukrainian border crossing point in Siret, northern Romania, February 27, 2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday says his country is ready for peace talks with Russia but not in Belarus, which was a staging ground for Moscow's invasion
The number of Ukrainian refugees who have reached neighbouring countries has swelled to 368,000, the United Nations' refugee agency said. That figure more than doubles the agency's estimate from the day before.
European leaders are bracing for an exodus of up to 4million after at least 300,000 refugees entered EU territory since Thursday.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said on Sunday: 'I am proud of how the European citizens at the borders are showing concrete solidarity with Ukrainians fleeing this terrible, aggressive war'. She said she would announce a solidarity platform at a special meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels to support the Ukrainians fleeing their country and the countries most affected by refugee arrivals.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss insisted the Government is 'urgently' looking at what more it can do to help Ukrainians, but declined to say how many refugees the UK will accept.
On Saturday, one woman was 'killed during a crush at the border with Poland' as people queued for 25 hours to escape bombs in the besieged country.
A British man caught up in the chaos with his Ukrainian girlfriend called the scene 'absolute pandemonium', adding: 'There was very little organisation and the closer you got to the front, the more people were pushing and shoving.
'Every so often there would be these big surges and people would be screaming. There were lots of young children and it felt very dangerous. Terrifying. Fights broke out as people accused others of pushing in or of hurting them. People had blood running down their faces. We saw a couple of women fainting and being carried above the crowd.
'And there was a strong rumour that someone had been crushed to death – the Polish border guards confirmed they had heard it was true.
'It was beyond unsafe. I have got bruises on me from all the pushing and I am just pleased that we finally managed to make it to Poland.'
Some Ukrainians have walked many miles through the night while others have fled by train, car or bus, forming lines miles long at border crossings. They were greeted by waiting relatives and friends or headed on their own to reception centres organised by neighbouring governments.
It comes as Putin ordered Russian nuclear deterrent forces put on high alert on Sunday amid tensions with the West over his invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at a meeting with his top officials, the Russian president claimed that leading NATO powers had made 'aggressive statements' along with the West imposing hard-hitting financial sanctions against Russia, including the president himself.
He ordered the Russian defence minister and the chief of the military's General Staff to put the nuclear deterrent forces in a 'special regime of combat duty'.
'Western countries aren't only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country,' Putin said in televised comments.
His order raised the threat that the tensions with the West over the invasion in Ukraine could lead to the use of nuclear weapons.
The Russian leader this week threatened to retaliate harshly against any nations that intervened directly in the conflict in Ukraine.
Estonia's former defence chief Riho Terras claimed that Putin's war is not going to plan because Russia is fast running out of money and weapons, and will have to enter negotiations with Volodymyr Zelensky's government if Kyiv holds off the Russians for 10 days.
The Russian president allegedly convened a meeting with the oligarchs in a bunker in the Ural Mountains, at which it is claimed that he furiously vented that he thought the war would be 'easy' and 'everything would be done in one to four days'.
Citing Ukrainian intelligence sources, Terras claimed that the war is costing Russia around £15billion-per-day, and that they have rockets for three to four days at most, which they are using sparingly.
Street fighting broke out in Ukraine's second-largest city and Russian troops squeezed strategic ports in the country's south Sunday, advances that appeared to mark a new phase of Russia's invasion following a wave of attacks on airfields and fuel facilities elsewhere in the country.
Kyiv was eerily quiet after huge explosions lit up the morning sky and authorities reported blasts at one of the airports. Only an occasional car appeared on a deserted main boulevard as a strict 39-hour curfew kept people off the streets. Terrified residents instead hunkered down in homes, underground garages and subway stations in anticipation of a full-scale Russian assault.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: 'The past night was tough – more shelling, more bombing of residential areas and civilian infrastructure.
People coming from Ukraine descend from a ferry boat to enter Romania after crossing the Danube river at the Isaccea-Orlivka border crossing between Romania and Ukraine on February 26, 2022
Ukrainian refugees arrive at Zahonyi railway station close to the Hungarian-Ukrainian border on February 27, 2022
People leaving Ukraine and heading over the border into Poland on February 27, 2022
People leaving Ukraine and heading over the border into Poland on February 27, 2022
People leaving Ukraine and crossing the border into neighbouring Poland on February 27, 2022
Refugees from Ukraine arrive to the railway station in Przemysl, Poland, February 27, 2022
A woman observes volunteers aid as people fleeing Ukraine arrive to Slovakia, at border crossing in Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia, February 27, 2022
A boy sleeps on the table as people fleeing Ukraine arrive to Slovakia, at border crossing in Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia
Hundreds of Ukrainians are seen desperately trying to flee to Poland from Lviv railway station
Some Ukrainians have walked many miles through the night while others have fled by train, car or bus, forming lines miles long at border crossings
West agrees to REMOVE Russian banks from Swift payments system: UK, EU, the US and allies take 'financial nuclear option' as they set up task force to go after oligarchs and strip them of 'yachts, money and ability to send kids to Western schools'
Russia has been cut out of a crucial global banking system as efforts to hit its economy if it invaded Ukraine intensified.
In a co-ordinated move Britain, the US, Canada and the European Union announced selected Russian banks would be excluded from the Swift global payments system.
At the same time they said the would be imposing 'restrictive measures' to prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves 'in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions'.
After talking by telephone to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr Johnson said the West had to do everything possible to change the 'very heavy odds' against Ukraine in its struggle against Moscow's forces.
He confirmed Britain would be sending further arms to the Ukrainians and he said that the financial measures were essential to put pressure on the Kremlin.
'It is incredibly important for tightening the economic ligature around the Putin regime,' he said during a visit to RAF Brize Norton.
Earlier German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced he was dropping his country's opposition to the move removing a major obstacle to international agreement.
'The horror of what is unfolding in Ukraine is becoming clear to Western audiences and that in turn is putting huge pressure on Western politicians,' Mr Johnson said.
'There is not a single facility in the country that the occupiers wouldn't consider as admissible targets.'
Following its gains to the east in the city of Kharkiv and multiple ports, Russia sent a delegation to Belarus for peace talks with Ukraine, according to the Kremlin. Zelensky suggested other locations, saying his country was unwilling to meet in Belarus because it served as a staging ground for the invasion.
Until Sunday, Russia's troops had remained on the outskirts of Kharkiv, a city of 1.4million about 12.4 miles south of the border with Russia, while other forces rolled past to press the offensive deeper into Ukraine.
Videos posted on Ukrainian media and social networks showed Russian vehicles moving across Kharkiv and Russian troops roaming the city in small groups. One showed Ukrainian troops firing at the Russians and damaged Russian light utility vehicles abandoned nearby.
The images underscored the determined resistance Russian troops face while attempting to enter Ukraine's bigger cities. Ukrainians have volunteered en masse to help defend the capital, Kyiv, and other cities, taking guns distributed by authorities and preparing firebombs to fight Russian forces.
Ukraine's government also is releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight for the country, a prosecutor's office official, Andriy Sinyuk, told the Hromadske TV channel Sunday. He did not specify whether the move applied to prisoners convicted of all levels of crimes.
Putin hasn't disclosed his ultimate plans, but Western officials believe he is determined to overthrow Ukraine's government and replace it with a regime of his own, redrawing the map of Europe and reviving Moscow's Cold War-era influence.
The pressure on strategic ports in the south of Ukraine appeared aimed at seizing control of the country's coastline stretching from the border with Romania in the west to the border with Russia in the east. A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said Russian forces had blocked the cities of Kherson on the Black Sea and the port of Berdyansk on the Azov Sea.
He said the Russian forces also took control of an airbase near Kherson and the Azov Sea city of Henichesk. Ukrainian authorities also have reported fighting near Odesa, Mykolaiv and other areas.
Cutting Ukraine's access to its sea ports would deal a major blow to the country's economy. It also could allow Moscow to build a land corridor to Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014 and until now was connected to Russia by a 12 mile bridge, the longest bridge in Europe which opened in 2018.
Flames billowed from an oil depot near an airbase in Vasylkiv, a city 23 miles south of Kyiv where there has been intense fighting, according to the mayor. Russian forces blew up a gas pipeline in Kharkiv, prompting the government to warn people to cover their windows with damp cloth or gauze as protection from smoke, the president's office said.
The number of casualties so far from Europe's largest land conflict since World War Two remains unclear amid the fog of combat.
Ukraine's health minister reported Saturday that 198 people, including three children, had been killed and more than 1,000 others wounded. It was unclear whether those figures included both military and civilian casualties. Russia has not released any casualty information.
Ukraine's UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, tweeted Saturday that Ukraine appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross 'to facilitate repatriation of thousands of bodies of Russian soldiers'. An accompanying chart claimed 3,500 Russian troops have been killed.
Laetitia Courtois, ICRC's permanent observer to the UN, told The Associated Press that the situation in Ukraine was 'a limitation for our teams on the ground' and 'we therefore cannot confirm numbers or other details'.
The United Nations' refugee agency said Sunday that about 368,000 Ukrainians have arrived in neighbouring countries since the invasion started Thursday. The UN has estimated the conflict could produce as many as 4million refugees, depending how long it continues.
Zelensky denounced Russia's offensive as 'state terrorism'. He said the attacks on Ukrainian cities should be investigated by an international war crimes tribunal and cost Russia its place as one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
Ukrainians fleeing their country after the Russian invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin arrive at the Polish-Ukrainian border crossing in Medyka in south-eastern Poland
Ukrainian families are seen at the border with Poland in Medyka as thousands of citizens are fleeing the war-torn country after Russia announced an invasion this week
People wait for their friends and relatives at the Medyka border crossing between Poland and Ukraine, as Polish Border Guards close lanes for vehicles to allow more pedestrian traffic
A man embraces a boy as people arrive at the Medyka border crossing between Poland and Ukraine on Saturday
Belarus poised to declare war on Ukraine as special forces are 'loaded onto planes in preparation for major air assault on Kyiv'
Belarusian special forces are loading onto airplanes in preparation for an air assault on Kyiv in what would be a widening of the conflict and a declaration of war on Ukraine by dictator Alexander Lukashenko, military sources have claimed.
Ukrainian intelligence has reportedly learned from within Belarus that 'special ops' troops have been spotted loading up planes for a major attack.
A widening of the war to potentially include Russian ally Belarus could signal Vladimir Putin's growing fury and frustration as the Russian campaign appears to get bogged down in fierce fighting around Kyiv and Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest city. It could also run the risk of sucking in other states including NATO allies, triggering a pan-European conflict.
A senior source told the Mirror: 'If this happens it will mean Belarus has openly joined Russia in its invasion of sovereign Ukraine. We believe they are being targeted at Kyiv and Zhytomir.'
Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Kyiv's former defence minister, has claimed that Belarus is about to declare war on Ukraine. The Guardian quoted Zagorodnyuk as saying: 'Republic of Belarus is highly likely to join the Russian war against Ukraine. On Russian side. There is an information about airborne troopers from Republic of Belarus loaded on the planes to enter Ukraine.
'This is a terrible development as it involves a country, which until very recently was a great friend of Ukraine; which people always considered Ukraine as a brotherly nation. Ukraine and Belarus has never been to war one with another in their many hundred years of history.
'We believe that the only reason for that decision was personal demand from President of Russia, which completely depends from Putin in its policy.'
'Russia has taken the path of evil, and the world should come to depriving it of its UN Security Council seat,' he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a Russian delegation of military officials and diplomats had arrived Sunday in the Belarusian city of Gomel for talks with Ukraine. Zelensky on Friday offered to negotiate a key Russian demand: abandoning ambitions of joining NATO.
Ukraine's president said his country was ready for peace talks but not in Belarus.
Peskov claimed Ukraine had proposed holding talks in Gomel. He added that the Russian military action was going forward pending the talks start.
Zelensky adviser Mykhailo Podolyak dismissed Moscow's offer as 'manipulation'.
As Russia pushes ahead with its offensive, the West is working to equip the outnumbered Ukrainian forces with weapons and ammunition while punishing Russia with far-reaching sanctions intended to further isolate Moscow.
The US pledged an additional $350million in military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-tank weapons, body armor and small arms. Germany said it would send missiles and anti-tank weapons to the besieged country and that it would close its airspace to Russian planes.
The US, European Union and Britain agreed to block 'selected' Russian banks from the SWIFT global financial messaging system, which moves money around more than 11,000 banks and other financial institutions worldwide, part of a new round of sanctions aiming to impose a severe cost on Moscow for the invasion. They also agreed to impose 'restrictive measures' on Russia's central bank.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, meanwhile, said Sunday that his country is committing $112.7billion to a special fund for its armed forces, raising its defence spending above 2 per cent of gross domestic product. Scholz told a special session of the Bundestag the investment was needed 'to protect our freedom and our democracy'.
Putin sent troops into Ukraine after denying for weeks that he intended to do so, all the while building up a force of almost 200,000 troops along the countries' borders. He claims the West has failed to take seriously Russia's security concerns about NATO, the Western military alliance that Ukraine aspires to join. But he has also expressed scorn about Ukraine's right to exist as an independent state.
Russia claims its assault on Ukraine is aimed only at military targets, but bridges, schools and residential neighbourhoods have been hit.
Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Oksana Markarova, said Ukraine was gathering evidence of shelling of residential areas, kindergartens and hospitals to submit to an international war crimes court in The Hague as possible crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Court's prosecutor has said he is monitoring the conflict closely.
Truss warned Sunday that Putin could use 'the most unsavoury means', including banned chemical or biological weapons, to defeat Ukraine.
'I urge the Russians not to escalate this conflict, but we do need to be prepared for Russia to seek to use even worse weapons,' she told Sky News.
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ALL EU countries will take in Ukrainian refugees for up to three years without asylum applications
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