Ukrainian President Zelensky Challenges Vladimir Putin To Sit Down For Talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz2mFOJLaRI
Zelensky tells Putin 'sit down with me, I don't bite, I'm a normal bloke' after Russian President's breathtaking address calling Ukrainians 'extreme gangsters' who use civilians as 'human shields' while his forces relentlessly bombard family homes
- Vladimir Putin has tonight denied that his troops are killing civilians or targeting cities, instead accusing Ukrainian soldiers of holding people hostage and hiding their military equipment in civilian areas
- Russian leader also claimed his 'special military operation' is going on time and to schedule, despite his troops missing key objectives, suffering embarrassing defeats, and getting bogged down in fighting
- It will do little to assure people the war could be over soon, but suggests Putin is rattled at level of resistance
- Came just hours after he shared a call with Emmanuel Macron, vowing that Russia would fight until 'the end'
- Macron said he believes 'the worst is yet to come' in Ukraine after 90-minute phone call with Vladimir Putin ended with his Russian counterpart declaring his goals will be achieved 'in any case'
- Talks were held between Ukraine and Russian negotiators, who agreed for safety corridors to be created
- Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed to Putin directly to sit down with him for talks
- Click here for MailOnline's liveblog with the latest updates on the Ukraine crisis
By CHRIS JEWERS and CHRIS PLEASANCE FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 22:16 AEDT, 3 March 2022 | UPDATED: 09:23 AEDT, 4 March 2022
Ukraine war: The latest
- Peace talks between the two sides resumed today, with negotiators meeting on the Belarus border
- An agreement was made for safe corridors to be created to allow for people to evacuate cities and for aid to be delivered, both sides confirmed
- Vladimir Putin called Emmanuel Macron to tell him that he has no intention of calling off the invasion, will keep going until 'the end', and may increase his demands despite suffering losses
- In an appeal to his Russian counterpart, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to Putin to sit down with him in-person for negotiations
- Russian forces take the Black Sea port of Kherson in southern Ukraine, the first major city to fall
- Invasion so far has been badly managed, a 'disaster, through and through', US defence experts say
- Ukraine's second city Kharkiv continues to come under heavy Russian shelling
- Column of Russian vehicles north of Kyiv 'stalled' due to fuel and food shortages, and Ukrainian resistance
- More than one million people have fled Ukraine since the Russian invasion
- Moscow admits 498 troops have died in Ukraine, widely thought to be an under-estimate but still a record total for post-Soviet Russia
- The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor says an active probe into possible war crimes in Ukraine 'will immediately proceed'
- Russia's top independent radio station closed and a leading independent TV station has suspended its operations as Kremlin moves to stifle criticism
- A Bangladeshi sailor is killed in an attack on his vessel docked in the Black Sea port of Olvia
- Russia floats the possibility of a ceasefire with talks with Ukraine scheduled for Thursday
- Russia tells citizens in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mariupol to leave, raising fears bombing will intensify
- UN General Assembly demands Russia 'immediately' withdraws. Moscow wins support from only four nations - Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria
- Swedish Armed Forces say four Russian fighter jets entered its airspace in the Baltic Sea
- US launches 'KleptoCapture' with the aim of seizing yachts, private jets and homes of Russian oligarchs
- Chelsea Russian owner Roman Abramovich confirms he is selling the Premier League club
- Ukraine invites mothers of captured Russian troops to come and collect their sons
- Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny urges Russians to protest daily against the invasion
- US follows the EU in targeting Russian ally Belarus with sanctions for supporting invasion
Just hours before the TV address, Putin had phoned Emmanuel Macron to tell the French President that he has no intention of pulling back from Ukraine or watering down his security demands, will achieve his aims 'whatever happens' and will continue fighting until 'the end'.
Macron's aides said after the call that they believe Putin intends to take the whole country, and that the 'worst is yet to come' as the Russian attacks step up, and that 'there was nothing in what President Putin told us that should reassure us.'
Mr Macron is said to have told Putin he is making a 'major mistake' and 'lying to himself'. Macron said Russia would end up poor, weakened and under sanctions for a very long time.
'There was nothing in what President Putin told us that should reassure us. He showed great determination to continue the operation,' Macron's aide said, before adding that Putin 'wanted to seize control of the whole of Ukraine'.
Putin's two statements today - the first he has made in public since announcing the start of his 'special operation' eight days ago - will do little to reassure anyone that the war is close to being over, or that Russia could be brought to the negotiating table without more blood being shed.
News that the convoy has been at least partially damaged or destroyed will come as a huge boon to the people of Kyiv, as it was feared the vehicles would be used to surround and bomb the city into submission. The Ukrainian capital is still under attack by Russian rockets and missiles, but has largely escaped the intense fire being rained down on other locations.
Perhaps the hardest-hit has been the city of Mariupol, on Ukraine's eastern Black Sea coast, which came under bombardment by Russian forces surrounding it yesterday - with the fire kept up near-continuously into today. Local officials say the city is without water, heat, or electricity, and cannot clear the dead from the streets.
Harrowing pictures revealed at least part of the civilian death toll, with a father seen weeping over the body of his son who was killed when a Russian shell destroyed his legs. Two elderly women were also pictured being evacuated from their homes and covered in blood after Russian attacks.
Despite the vicious shelling, the city still remains in the hands of Ukrainian forces - as a defiant Zelensky vowed today that Ukraine will be rebuilt with Russian money as he praised his troops' 'heroic' defence.
Kharkiv, in the east, and Chernihiv, in the north west, also remained under Ukrainian control despite coming under heavy rocket fire. Nine people died in Chernihiv after Russian rockets hit a school and nearby apartments. There were also fears the Russians were about to launch a major amphibious assault against the port city of Odessa after a large fleet of ships was spotted near Crimea in the early hours.
The Ukrainian president said that 'all lines of defence are holding' with the cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Mykolaiv all resisting Russian attacks. He even claimed the city of Kherson remains in Ukrainian hands, despite the mayor seeming to confirm overnight that it had been taken by Russian forces.
'They wanted to destroy us. They failed. We've been through so much. And if anyone thinks that, having overcome all this, Ukrainians will be frightened, broken or surrender, they know nothing about Ukraine,' Zelensky said, adding: 'We will restore every house, every street, every city and we say to Russia: learn the word 'reparations'.
'You will reimburse us for everything you did against our state, against every Ukrainian, in full.'
Separately, one of his presidential advisers said the Ukrainian army is now getting ready to launch counter-attacks on Russian forces after their initial assault on the country stalled - amid reported of fuel and food shortages, heavy casualties, and mismanagement of the operation.
'Help to us is increasing every minute and the strength of the enemy is decreasing every minute. We're not only defending but also counter-attacking,' the adviser said in a televised briefing.
President Zelensky's office said a second round of negotiations had concluded. A first round of talks on Monday ended without an agreement.
Ukraine war: City by city
Kyiv: Four large rocket strikes hit the Ukrainian capital overnight, including one which struck a train station being used to evacuate civilians , while others struck TV and radio stations.
Ukraine claimed to have shot down a Russian fighter jet over Irpin, a satellite city of Kyiv which has come under heavy attack, in the early hours of Thursday
Kharkiv: The second-largest city in Ukraine continue to come under bombardment with pictures showing destroyed residential buildings and rubble littering the city centre.
Izyum, a city 70 miles to the south of Kharkiv towards Donetsk, also came under heavy bombardment with explosions lighting up the night sky
Chernihiv: Located to the north-west of Kyiv, the city has been the site of fierce fighting with Russian troops since the early days of the invasion
Despite being surrounded and under heavy shelling, the city remains under Ukrainian control
Mariupol: Heavy Russian shelling which began targeting the city on Wednesday continued into Thursday, with the mayor saying the bombardment is so heavy that medics can't get into the streets to rescue the dead and injured
Despite the attacks, the city remains in Ukrainian hands
Kherson: City feared captured by Russian forces after mayor says 'armed visitors' joined a local council meeting and had imposed a curfew
However, the British MoD said Thursday morning that the military situation is still 'unclear' - suggesting that Russia may not be in full control
Zaporizhzhia: Russian forces have surrounded the city and its nuclear power plant, which is the largest in Europe
Civilians set up road blocks around the plant to defend it, with the city's mayor saying one came under fire by Russian troops on Wednesday leaving two people hurt
Odessa: The Black Sea port city, and Ukraine's main naval base, is preparing for a Russian assault after a dozen warships were seen forming up near Crimea
Mayor said fighter jets appear to be testing air defences by flying sorties overhead, as residents prepare makeshift defences made of old railway sleepers and lay landmines on the beach
Ahead of the invasion, Washington had warned that Russia's superior forces would be able to quickly overwhelm Ukraine's 200,000-strong army - taking out air defences, achieving superiority in the skies, and then raining death down on those below.
But none of that has come to pass. Ukraine's skies remain contested, US intelligence says, while attacks have been piecemeal with troops under-supplied and not fighting in a coordinated fashion, leading to large numbers of dead along with some abandoning their vehicles which have then been captured.
'This is a colossal intelligence failure that vastly underestimated Ukrainian resistance, and military execution has been terrible,' Michael Vickers, former US Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
'[Putin's] main attack has been underweighted. It's been piecemeal. His reconnaissance elements have been captured, columns have been destroyed,' he said. 'It's just a disaster, through and through.'
But many caution that Russia's initial failures could simply pre-sage a secondary phase of the fighting in which it uses superior numbers and force of arms to surround and bomb Ukrainian troops into submission, causing large civilian casualties.
Yves Le Drian, the French foreign minister, agreed with that assessment today as he issued a warning that the 'worst' is still to come as Russia switches to a 'logic of siege' with major cities in danger of being surrounded.
He spoke as Europe continued to step up its assistance to Ukraine, with Germany pledging another 2,700 anti-aircraft missiles to bolster the Ukrainian defences. That comes on top of 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger anti-aircraft weapons it has already sent, in a stunning reversal of its long-standing pledge not to supply weapons.
Kyiv has so-far escaped what observers feared would be Russian attempts to surround and bomb it into submission, after skirmishes in the outskirts led to Moscow's men being pushed back. Sight of the convoy earlier this week seemed to confirm that Putin would resort to 'siege' tactics to force a bloody victory.
But, as of Thursday morning, the convoy was near-motionless - having stalled late Monday. The exact reason is unclear, but American and British intelligence believe it is due to a combination of Ukrainian resistance and logistical problems within the convoy itself.
Reports from the ground indicate that Russian vehicles have been running out of fuel, while pictures also appear to show some vehicles have been poorly maintained and their tyres are falling apart.
A Pantsir missile system bogged down and abandoned in a muddy field lost several of its tyres when Ukrainian forces tried to tow it away, with Trent Teletenko - a former Department of Defence civil servant - wrote on Twitter that it appears Russia has failed to maintain the tyres on its vehicles properly, leaving them brittle.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures as he speaks during a press conference in Kyiv on March 3, 2022. He made a plea to Russian President Valdimir Putin to sit down with him in person for negotiations
Russian President Vladimir Putin issues assessments during his meeting with the officials of Security Council of Russia, on March 03, 2022 in Moscow, Russia. Putin branded Ukrainians 'extreme gangsters', claimed their army is using civilians as 'human shields', hailed his soldiers as heroes who are fighting to save innocent lives and said his invasion is going exactly to plan and schedule in a stunning act of hypocrisy and outright denial
Units of Russian Armed Forces enter Kyiv region, Ukraine, in this screengrab obtained from a video by Reuters on Thursday
MARIUPOL: Serhii, a father from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, weeps over the body of teenage son Iliya at a maternity unit converted into a hospital to treat civilian victims of Russian shelling
MARIUPOL: Ilya is brought into hospital in the back of a car, with both of his legs destroyed by a Russian shell explosion. The mayor of Mariupol believes 'hundreds' of civilians have been killed in similar strikes
MARIUPOL: A civilian wounded in Russian strikes on the city of Mariupol is treated at a maternity unit of the local hospital that has been converted into a centre to treat the victims
KYIV: A firefighter works to extinguish fire at a warehouse that caught flames, according to local authorities, after shelling, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in the village of Chaiky in the Kyiv region, Ukraine March 3, 2022
Kherson, a city of 300,000 on the Black Sea, appears to have fallen under Russian control after the mayor said 'armed visitors' had taken over a council meeting and imposed curfews. If Putin's men are in full control then it opens up the city of Odessa, home to Ukraine's main naval port, to attack - with amphibious assault ships seen forming up near Crimea today
Pictured: A map showing the Kyiv region and the area occupied by Russian troops as they close in on Ukraine's capital
MARIUPOL: A Ukrainian woman living in the Black Sea city of Mariupol is evacuated from her home during a brief break in Russian shelling, which has now been continuous for more than 24 hours
MARIUPOL: An elderly woman laying in a pool of blood inside her apartment in Mariupol is rescued by paramedics after being injured during shelling of the city
MARIUPOL: Ambulance paramedics move a wounded in shelling civilian onto a stretcher to a maternity hospital converted into a medical ward in Mariupol
MARIUPOL: The Black Sea city continues to be under heavy bombardment today, with the mayor saying there is no water, heat or electricity and that Russian fire is so intense they cannot collect bodies from the streets
KYIV: Smoke rises over Chaika, a residential area on the outskirts of Kyiv, as the city again came under bombardment
BELARUS: Ukrainian and Russian negotiators meet on the border with Belarus for talks on ending the war. Ukraine says it will demand a ceasefire and the withdrawal of all Russian forces from the country
KYIV: An apartment building in Borodyanka is seen on Thursday morning almost totally destroyed after a Russian missile struck it the day before, causing a large part of it to collapse
KYIV: Another view of the apartment block in Borodyanka shows it suffered heavy damage in a Russian strike on Tuesday, as Putin's men continue to try and take the country
A view of heavy damage in the residential area of Borodyanka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine
CHERNIHIV: A diesel fuel storage facility burns in Chernihiv after being struck with a Russian shell
CHERNIHIV: Ukrainian firefighters attempt to put out a burning diesel fuel depot in the northern city after attacks by Russia
A force of around a dozen Russian vessels including landing ships is massing off the coast of Crimea today, with experts saying an assault on Odessa could come later in the day
Heavy smoke blankets an area of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, after it was hit by Russian shelling
A Ukrainian serviceman walks past as fire and smoke rises over a damaged logistic center after shelling in Kyiv
A badly damaged car and destroyed buildings are seen in central Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, after being hit by artillery
The interior courtyard of a building in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, are pictured after being hit by a missile
Heavily damaged buildings in downtown Kharkiv are pictured after a strike by Russian rockets on Thursday
KHARKIV: A view of damaged civil settlements after Russian attacks in Kharkiv, Ukraine
KHARKIV: Flattened buildings and a destroyed apartment block are seen in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, after it came under attack by Russian forces
KHARKIV: A view of damaged civil settlements after Russian attacks in Kharkiv, Ukraine
A view of heavy damage in the residential area of Borodyanka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine
A woman walks next to a damaged house following recent shelling in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk
Images have been steadily emerging of Russian vehicles getting stuck, including one where the tyres shredded (left) after apparently being poorly maintained
Ukrainian soldiers patrol in front of the Independence Monument during Russian attacks in Kyiv
A Ukrainian soldier tasked with defending Kyiv is pictured patrolling the streets shortly after airstrikes on the city
Ukrainian soldiers patrol in front of the Independence Monument during Russian attacks in Kyiv
A woman cooks for Ukrainian soldiers at a frontline, northeast of Kyiv
Ukrainian soldiers share a light moment at a frontline, northeast of Kyiv
A Ukrainian soldier walks next to a camp fire at a frontline, northeast of Kyiv
Moscow's isolation deepened when most of the world lined up against it at the United Nations to demand it withdraw from Ukraine. The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into possible war crimes. And in a stunning reversal, the International Paralympic Committee banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Winter Paralympic Games.
Russia reported its military casualties Wednesday for the first time in the war, saying nearly 500 of its troops have been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. Ukraine did not disclose its own military losses.
Ukraine's military general staff said in a Facebook post that Russia's forces had suffered some 9,000 casualties in the fighting. It did not clarify if that figure included both killed and wounded soldiers.
In a video address to the nation early Thursday, Zelenskyy praised his country's resistance.
'We are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy,' he said. 'They will have no peace here. They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment.'
He said the fighting is taking a toll on the morale of Russian soldiers, who 'go into grocery stores and try to find something to eat.'
'These are not warriors of a superpower,' he said. 'These are confused children who have been used.'
Meanwhile, the senior U.S. defense official said an immense Russian column of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles appeared to be stalled roughly 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Kyiv and had made no real progress in the last couple of days.
The convoy, which earlier in the week had seemed poised to launch an assault on the capital, has been plagued with fuel and food shortages, the official said.
On the far edges of Kyiv, volunteers well into their 60s manned a checkpoint to try to block the Russian advance.
'In my old age, I had to take up arms,' said Andrey Goncharuk, 68. He said the fighters needed more weapons, but 'we'll kill the enemy and take their weapons.'
Around Ukraine, others crowded into train stations, carrying children wrapped in blankets and dragging wheeled suitcases into new lives as refugees.
Among the million-plus refugees who have fled Ukraine in recent days were some 200 orphans with severe physical and mental disabilities who arrived from Kyiv by train in Hungary on Wednesday.
Some of them spent more than an hour in underground shelters during a bombing, said Larissa Leonidovna, the director of the Svyatoshinksy orphanage for boys.
Overnight, Associated Press reporters in Kyiv heard at least one explosion before videos started circulating of apparent strikes on the capital.
Russia's Defense Ministry said it had knocked out a reserve broadcasting center in the Lysa Hora district, about 7 kilometers (4 miles) south of the government headquarters. It said unspecified precision weapons were used, and that there were no casualties or damage to residential buildings.
A statement from the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces didn't address the strikes, saying only that Russian forces were 'regrouping' and 'trying to reach the northern outskirts' of the city.
'The advance on Kyiv has been rather not very organized and now they're more or less stuck,' military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told the AP in Moscow.
Ukrainian soldiers unload weapons from the trunk of an old car, northeast of Kyiv
A Ukrainian soldier holds an anti-tank launcher at a frontline, northeast of Kyiv
A Ukrainian soldier flashes the victory sign at a frontline, northeast of Kyiv
A worker from a local construction company prepares an anti-tank obstacle to be place on road around Kyiv
Workers from a local construction company weld anti-tanks obstacles to be place on road around Kyiv
Workers from a local construction company weld anti-tanks obstacles to be place on road around Kyiv
Civilians build iron barricades and traps to block armored vehicles in Lviv, as Russia attacks other cities in the country
Metal workers in Lviv, western Ukraine, help to make barricades that can be used to defend the city in case Russia attacks
Civilians build iron barricades and traps to block armored vehicles in the city of Lviv, western Ukraine
Clusters of metal spike traps designed to puncture the wheels of Russian armoured vehicles are manufactured by metal workers in Lviv, western Ukraine
At least 227 civilians have been killed and another 525 wounded since the invasion began, according to the latest figures from the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Earlier, Ukraine said more than 2,000 civilians have died, a figure that could not be independently verified.
The U.N. office uses strict methodology and counts only confirmed casualties, and admits its figures are a vast undercount.
Still, the tally eclipses the entire civilian casualty count from the fighting in 2014 in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces - which left 136 dead and 577 injured.
In a videotaped address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to keep up the resistance. He vowed that the invaders would have 'not one quiet moment' and described Russian soldiers as 'confused children who have been used.'
Moscow's isolation deepened when most of the world lined up against it at the United Nations to demand it withdraw from Ukraine. The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into possible war crimes. And in a stunning reversal, the International Paralympic Committee banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Winter Paralympic Games.
Felgenhauer said with the Russian economy already suffering, there could be a 'serious internal political crisis' if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not find a way to end the war quickly.
'There's no real money to run to fight this war,' he said, adding that if Putin and the military 'are unable to wrap up this campaign very swiftly and victoriously, they're in a pickle.'
Several parts of the country were under pressure.
Ukraine's military said Russian forces 'did not achieve the main goal of capturing Mariupol' in its statement, which did not mention the another important port, Kherson, whose status was unclear.
Putin's forces claimed to have taken complete control of Kherson, and U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Thursday that it was 'possible - it's not verified yet - that Russia is in control' there.
A senior U.S. defense official earlier disputed the Russians controlled the city.
'Our view is that Kherson is very much a contested city,' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Zelenskyy's office told the AP that it could not comment on the situation in Kherson while the fighting was still going on.
The mayor of Kherson, Igor Kolykhaev, said Russian soldiers were in the city and came to the city administration building. He said he asked them not to shoot civilians and to allow crews to gather up the bodies from the streets.
'We don't have any Ukrainian forces in the city, only civilians and people here who want to LIVE,' he said in a statement later posted on Facebook.
The mayor said Kherson would maintain a strict 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew and restrict traffic into the city to food and medicine deliveries. The city will also require pedestrians to walk in groups no larger than two, obey commands to stop and not to 'provoke the troops.'
People board an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv at Kyiv central train station amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine
People board an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv at Kyiv central train station amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Children look out from an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv as they say goodbye to their father at Kyiv central train
Pictured: Footage from Kiyv overnight showed a huge explosion light up the night sky. Reports said at least two huge blasts were heard in the city air raid sirens warned residents to urgently seek shelter
Burned buildings which were hit by shelling is seen in small city of Borodyanka near Kyiv
A view shows damaged buildings following recent shelling, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in the settlement of Borodyanka in the Kyiv region, Ukraine March 2, 2022
'The flag flying over us is Ukrainian,' he wrote. 'And for it to stay that way, these demands must be observed.'
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said the attacks there had been relentless.
'We cannot even take the wounded from the streets, from houses and apartments today, since the shelling does not stop,' he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Russia reported its military casualties for the first time in the war, saying nearly 500 of its troops have been killed and almost 1,600 wounded. Ukraine did not disclose its own military losses.
Ukraine's military general staff said in a Facebook post that Russia's forces had suffered some 9,000 casualties in the fighting. It did not clarify if that figure included both killed and wounded soldiers.
In a video address to the nation early Thursday, Zelenskyy praised his country's resistance.
'We are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy,' he said. 'They will have no peace here. They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment.'
He said the fighting is taking a toll on the morale of Russian soldiers, who 'go into grocery stores and try to find something to eat.'
'These are not warriors of a superpower,' he said. 'These are confused children who have been used.'
Meanwhile, the senior U.S. defense official said an immense Russian column of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles appeared to be stalled roughly 25 kilometers (16 miles) from Kyiv and had made no real progress in the last couple of days.
The convoy, which earlier in the week had seemed poised to launch an assault on the capital, has been plagued with fuel and food shortages, the official said.
On the far edges of Kyiv, volunteers well into their 60s manned a checkpoint to try to block the Russian advance.
'In my old age, I had to take up arms,' said Andrey Goncharuk, 68. He said the fighters needed more weapons, but 'we'll kill the enemy and take their weapons.'
Around Ukraine, others crowded into train stations, carrying children wrapped in blankets and dragging wheeled suitcases into new lives as refugees.
In an email, U.N. refugee agency spokesperson Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams told the AP that the refugee count surpassed 1 million as of midnight in central Europe, based on figures collected by national authorities.
Shabia Mantoo, another spokesperson for the agency, said that 'at this rate' the exodus from Ukraine could make it the source of 'the biggest refugee crisis this century.'
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Ukraine war: Kyiv convoy has hardly moved in three days