Ukraine refugees reach 1 million in 7 days

The UN refugee agency says 1 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion less than a week ago, an exodus without precedent in this century for its speed.

The tally from UNHCR amounts to more than 2 percent of Ukraine's population on the move in under a week. The World Bank counted the population at 44 million at the end of 2020.

The UN agency has predicted that up to 4 million people could eventually leave Ukraine but cautioned that even that projection could be revised upward.

In an email, UNHCR spokesperson Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams wrote: "Our data indicates we passed the 1M mark" as of midnight in central Europe, based on counts collected by national authorities.

On Twitter, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, wrote: "In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of one million refugees from Ukraine to neighbouring countries." Syria, whose civil war erupted in 2011, currently remains the country with the largest refugee outflows – at more than 5.6 million people, according to UNHCR figures. But even at the swiftest rate of flight by refugees out of Syria, in early 2013, it took at least three months for 1 million refugees to leave that country.

UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said Wednesday that "at this rate" the outflows from Ukraine could make it the source of "the biggest refugee crisis this century." ___ Kyiv: In a video address to the nation early Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave an upbeat assessment of the war and called on Ukrainians to keep up the 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." Zelenskyy didn't comment on whether the Russians have seized several cities, including Kherson.

"If they went somewhere, then only temporarily. We'll drive them out," he said.

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." He said the Russian death toll has reached about 9,000.

"Ukraine doesn't want to be covered in bodies of soldiers,'' he said. ''Go home." ___ Washington: US President Joe Biden is hailing Wednesday's vote by the United Nations General Assembly demanding an immediate halt to Moscow's attack on Ukraine and the withdrawal of all Russian troops, saying it "demonstrates the extent of global outrage at Russia's horrific assault on a sovereign neighbour." In a statement Wednesday evening, Biden said the UN vote recognises that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "attacking the very foundations of global peace and security — and everything the United Nations stands for." The vote on the "Aggression against Ukraine" resolution was 141-5, with 35 abstentions.

Echoing his State of the Union address Tuesday, Biden said: "Together, we must — and we will — hold Russia accountable for its actions. We will demonstrate that freedom always triumphs over tyranny." ___ Kherson: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office says fighting is still occurring around the port city of Kherson, which Russian officials have said is in their "complete control." Zelenskyy's office told The Associated Press that it could not comment on the situation there while the battle was still being waged.

But 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 them to gather up the bodies from the streets.

"I simply asked them not to shoot at people," Mayor Igor Kolykhaev said in a statement. "We don't have any Ukrainian forces in the city, only civilians and people here who want to LIVE." Kherson, a city of 300,000, is strategically located on the banks of the Dnieper River near where it flows into the Black Sea. If Russian troops take the city, they could unblock a water canal and restore water supplies to the Crimean Peninsula.

The battle in the Kherson region began last Thursday, the first day of the invasion, and by the next day the Russian forces were able to take a bridge that connects the city with territory on the western bank.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)