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Ukrainian refugees near 1.5 million

06 March 2022 07:18 (UTC +04:00)

The number of Ukrainian refugees was expected to reach 1.5 million on Sunday as Russia continued its attack 11 days and Kyiv pressed for further Western action, including more sanctions and weapons, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Moscow and Kyiv traded blame over a failed ceasefire plan that would have let civilians flee Mariupol and Volnovakha, two southern cities besieged by Russian forces. Another round of talks was tentatively planned for Monday as Ukrainians who could escape spilled into neighboring Poland, Romania, Slovakia and elsewhere.

In a televised address on Saturday night, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on people in areas occupied by Russian troops to go on the offensive and fight.

"We must go outside and drive this evil out of our cities," he said, vowing to rebuild his nation. "My confidence in this is reinforced by the energy of our resistance, our protest."

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier reiterated that he wanted a neutral Ukraine that had been "demilitarised" and "denazified," and likened Western sanctions "to a declaration of war," adding: "Thank God it has not come to that."