Refugee exodus reaches 2.8 million as Russian attacks rock western Ukraine

Hundreds of people fleeing what was until now relative safety in western Ukraine joined thousands crossing into eastern Europe on Monday after Russia attacked a Ukrainian base near the border with member Poland. of NATO.

Ukraine said 35 people were killed at the base on Sunday. Moscow said up to 180 have died.”foreign mercenaries” and that a large number of foreign weapons were destroyed.

Ukraine it also reported new air strikes at an airport in the west of the country.

The number of refugees fleeing Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24 it has risen to more than 2.8 million people, United Nations data released on Monday showed, in what has become the most serious humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War Two.

European Union officials have said five million people could end up displaced, while others have raised that figure.

Millions of people have also been displaced within Ukraine, with many evacuated to less war-torn western regions, including cities such as Lviv.

Myroslava, 52, fled her home in the Ternopil region of western Ukraine and was waiting in a terminal at the Krakow station in Poland until acquaintances picked her up. She didn’t know where she would stay.

“We left due to the attack yesterday (Sunday)”, he said, adding that he hoped western Ukraine would be safe. “We weren’t planning on leaving, but since it was so close we decided to.”

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference with his Ukrainian and Lithuanian counterparts that the attack near their border showed that Russia wanted to “create panic among the civilian population”.

Mira, from kyiv, who was traveling with her mother to Warsaw, said she had been surprised by the Russian attack near Lviv. “I panicked and felt scared“, said.

diplomatic effort

Battles continued in many of Ukraine’s major cities, including the capital kyiv.

Ukraine said it would try to evacuate civilians through 10 humanitarian corridors on Monday.

Russia denies targeting civilians and describes its actions as a “special operation” to demilitarize and “denazify” Ukraine. Ukraine and Western allies call this a baseless pretext for the invasion of a democratic country of 44 million people.

“They have destroyed housesAlena Kasinyska, a refugee from the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, said after arriving in Romania at Isaccea, a busy border crossing in the Danube Delta. “People have nowhere to live, we are afraid.”

Ukraine said on Monday that it had started talks “difficult” on a ceasefire, the immediate withdrawal of troops and security guarantees with Russia.

Both sides reported progress over the weekend after previous rounds focused mainly on ceasefires to bring aid to towns besieged by Russian forces and evacuate civilians. Those truces have frequently failed.

Authorities and volunteers from Central and Eastern Europe are struggling to provide food, shelter and medical assistance to the millions of refugees crossing their borders.

Front-line states such as Poland and Slovakia – which have taken in more than half of the total number of people fleeing – along with Romania, Hungary and Moldova have received the vast majority of refugees, some of whom have headed west.

Poland’s border guard said around 1.76 million people had entered the country since the fighting began, with 18,400 arriving during the early hours of Monday.