Photos: Shelling continues in Ukraine as Russian forces advance

The swiftest refugee exodus this century is under way with one million people fleeing Ukraine since Russia invaded.

A residential building destroyed by recent shelling in the city of Irpin, in the Kyiv region. [Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters

3 Mar 2022

More than one million people have fled Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, in the swiftest refugee exodus this century, the United Nations says.

“In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of one million refugees from Ukraine to neighbouring countries,” UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi tweeted. “Unless there is an immediate end to the conflict, millions more are likely to be forced to flee Ukraine.”

Russian troops were in the centre of the southern Ukrainian port city of Kherson on Thursday after a day of conflicting claims over whether Moscow had captured a major urban centre for the first time in its eight-day invasion.

The capture of Kherson, a strategic southern provincial capital where the Dnieper River flows into the Black Sea, is the first significant city to fall since Moscow launched its attack on February 24.

Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv continues to come under heavy Russian shelling, with police and university buildings among the latest struck.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) says a member of its observer mission died in the shelling.

Russia denies targeting civilians although there have been widespread reports of non-combatant casualties and the targeting of residential areas.

Russia on Wednesday reported its military casualties for the first time since the invasion began last week, saying nearly 500 of its troops had been killed and almost 1,600 wounded.

Smoke rises from damaged residential building after shelling in Chernihiv, Ukraine. [State Emergency Service of Ukraine via Anadolu]

Buildings are hit by shelling in the small city of Borodyanka, near the capital Kyiv. [Alisa Yakubovych/EPA]

Buildings are damaged following recent shelling as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Borodyanka, in the Kyiv area. [Maksim Levin/Reuters]

The view from a house damaged by a Russian air raid in Gorenka, outside the capital Kyiv. [Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo]

A woman cries outside houses damaged by a Russian attack in Gorenka. [Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo]

Police officers remove the body of a passerby killed in an air raid that hit Kyiv's main television tower on Wednesday. [Aris Messinis/AFP]

Fire burns in a sports complex across the street from the Kyiv TV Tower. [Chris McGrath/Getty Images]

People carry belongings out of a residential building destroyed by recent shelling in the city of Irpin, in the Kyiv region. [Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters]

A destroyed armoured vehicle is seen on a road near the village of Motyzhyn, in the Kyiv region. [Maksim Levin/Reuters]

A woman holds a little girl at a border crossing in Medyka, Poland, as refugees flee the Russian invasion. [Markus Schreiber/AP Photo]

Damaged residential buildings after shelling in Kharkiv. [State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout via Anadolu]

https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2022/3/3/photos-shelling-continues-in-ukraine-as-russian-forces-advance