Millions expected to flee Ukraine with 100,000 estimated to have lost homes, UN says

The UN said it had received reports of 25 civilian deaths and 102 injuries caused by shelling and airstrikes - a figure it said is “very likely to be an underestimate”.

Ukrainian officials have reported at least 137 deaths on the Ukrainian side and claimed hundreds on the Russian one. Russian authorities released no casualty figures.

Forced mass displacement has also begun, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) confirmed.

“There are more than 100,000 who we estimate have lost their homes and are displaced inside the country and we are also aware of several thousand who have crossed international borders in the region, and we’ve seen those really just happening since the onset of the situation,” said the UNHCR’s spokesperson, Shabia Mantoo, yesterday.

“We’re seeing these reports and we’ve seen for instance yesterday that there were about 5,000 refugee arrivals in Moldova already, but the other movements are being reported in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and the Russian Federation.”

Concerns have also been raised about the safety of anti-war protesters inside Russia, with reports that around 1,800 people have been arrested following demonstrations in over 50 cities.

Russian troops were bearing down on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv yesterday, with gunfire and explosions resonating ever closer to the government quarter, in an invasion of a democratic country that has fuelled fears of wider war in Europe.

Amid growing casualties - including shelling that sliced through a Kyiv apartment building, bridges and schools - were increasing signs that Moscow may be seeking to overthrow Ukraine’s government.

It was unclear how much of the country remained under Ukrainian control and how much Russian forces have seized.

Day two of Russia’s invasion focused on the Ukrainian capital, where explosions started before dawn and gunfire was reported in several areas.

Ukrainian authorities used armoured vehicles and snowploughs to defend Kyiv and limit movement, and said Russian spies were seeking to infiltrate the city.

Russia’s military said it had seized a strategic airport outside Kyiv that would allow it to quickly build up forces to take the capital.

It claimed to have already cut the city off from the west - the direction most of those escaping the invasion are heading in, with lines of cars snaking towards the Polish border.

Intense fire broke out on a bridge across the Dnipro River dividing the eastern and western sides of Kyiv, with about 200 Ukrainian forces establishing defensive positions and taking shelter behind their armoured vehicles and later under the bridge.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with Moscow to hold talks, and with western powers to act faster to cut off Russia’s economy and provide military help.

“When bombs fall on Kyiv, it happens in Europe, not just in Ukraine,” he said. “When missiles kill our people, they kill all Europeans.”

He also offered to negotiate on one of Mr Putin’s key demands: that Ukraine declare itself neutral and abandon its ambition of joining Nato.

The Russian president’s spokesman said the Kremlin could consider the idea, but foreign minister Sergei Lavrov suggested it may be too late, saying Mr Zelensky had “missed the opportunity” to discuss a non-aligned status for Ukraine when Mr Putin previously proposed it.

After denying for weeks that he planned to invade, Mr Putin argued that the West left him no choice by refusing to negotiate on his security demands.

He urged the Ukrainian military to surrender, saying: “We would find it easier to agree with you than with that gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis who have holed up in Kyiv and have taken the entire Ukrainian people hostage.”

Armed Forces Minister James Heappey praised the “heroic” efforts of Ukrainian soldiers as he updated Parliament yesterday morning. He said the “incredible fear and misery” being caused in Ukraine also highlighted the bravery of those who protested in Russia against the invasion and what he described as “this pointless loss of Russian life”.