‘Russian soldiers were shooting civilians. I witnessed it. People were scared’

AS more than two million refugees from Ukraine begin to scatter throughout Europe and beyond, some are carrying valuable witness evidence to build a case for war crimes.

More and more, the people who are turning up at border crossings have fled some of the cities hardest hit by Russian forces.

“It was very eerie,” said Ihor Diekov, one of the many people who crossed the Irpin river outside Kyiv on the slippery wooden planks of a makeshift bridge, after Ukrainians blew up the concrete span to slow the Russian advance.

He heard gunshots as he crossed and saw corpses along the road.

“The Russians promised to provide a (humanitarian) corridor which they did not comply with. They were shooting civilians,” he said. “That’s absolutely true. I witnessed it. People were scared.”

Such testimonies will increasingly reach the world in the coming days as more people flow along fragile humanitarian corridors. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday said three such corridors were operating from bombarded areas.

People left Sumy, in the northeast near the Russian border; suburbs of Kyiv; and Enerhodar, the southern town where Russian forces took over a large nuclear plant. In all, about 35,000 people got out, he said.

More evacuations were announced yesterday as desperate residents sought to leave cities where food, water, medicines and other essentials were running out.

At least one million people have been displaced within Ukraine, in addition to the growing number of refugees, said International Organisation for Migration director general Antonio Vitorino.

Nationwide, thousands of people are thought to have been killed across Ukraine, both civilians and soldiers, since Russian forces invaded two weeks ago.

City officials in the blockaded port city of Mariupol have said 1,200 residents have been killed there, including three in the bombing of a children’s hospital.

In Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, officials said 282 residents have been killed, including several children.

The United Nations human rights office said on Wednesday it had recorded the killings of 516 civilians in Ukraine since Russia invaded, including 37 children.