Western Morning News (Saturday)
More than 1.2m refugees flee Ukraine fighting
MORE than 1.2 million people have left Ukraine since the fighting began, according to the UN refugee agency.
More than 165,000 people left the country on Thursday, down slightly from Wednesday’s count and well under the nearly 200,000 on Tuesday, which amounted to the peak one-day outflow of people from Ukraine since the conflict began, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Its data portal on Ukraine showed that the majority, about 650,000, had gone to neighbouring Poland, and roughly 145,000 had fled to Hungary.
Another 103,000 were in Moldova and more than 90,000 in Slovakia.
UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said “we know that the majority are women, children and the elderly”.
The people fleeing Ukraine are escaping the “most atrocious set of circumstances”, the Home Secretary said during her trip to the Polish border. Priti Patel travelled to Poland to mark the Ukraine family scheme opening on Friday to allow Britons and those settled in the UK to bring their relatives over to join them.
Ms Patel said there was work going on “night and day” to ensure those fleeing the advancing Russian troops could seek refuge. She said people crossing the border were coming from the “most atrocious set of circumstances where they are being persecuted by President Putin”.
The UK’s initial visa offer was restricted to immediate family but was widened on Tuesday to include parents, grandparents and siblings, with applications opening on Friday.
Meanwhile, the shelling of a nuclear power station in south-eastern Ukraine is “an affront to the world at large”, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said. He said it meant that more than ever the international community needs to “come down hard on Putin”. Mr Raab told Times
Radio: “It is clearly reckless, irresponsible and not only the fact they were shooting, bombarding that particular site, but when the Ukrainian emergency authorities were trying to put out the fire, the shelling continued. It must stop.”
Boris Johnson called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in light of the attack at Europe’s largest power station and European markets reacted with horror to the attack. Although the situation is reportedly under control with no radiation leakage, stock indexes were down across the continent.
In London the Metropolitan Police said its War Crimes Team is appealing for anyone in the UK who may have direct evidence of war crimes in Ukraine from 21 November 2013 onwards to come forward.
Meanwhile the BBC said it is “temporarily suspending” the work of all its news journalists and support staff in Russia after authorities passed legislation cracking down on foreign outlets. Director-general Tim Davie said the new law appeared to “criminalise the process of independent journalism” in the country.
The Russian parliament approved a law on Friday that would make it a criminal offence to spread “fake” or “false” news about the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. It comes after the Kremlin accused the BBC of playing a “determined role in undermining the Russian stability and security”.