MORE THAN 3.2 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE FLED UKRAINE, MORE EXPECTED TO LEAVE

Thu 17 March 2022:

About 3.2 million people have fled Ukraine, according to data released by the United Nations.

While the numbers arriving in the frontline states – Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova – have slowed in recent days, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he expected a “bigger wave” next week.

“The war is not subsiding, but spreading; and as it spreads, there is the risk that next week will see the arrival of more people in Hungary, presenting us with a huge challenge,” he said in a video posted on his Facebook page.

“They are not only fleeing from areas threatened by war, but also from war zones themselves.”

30,000 civilians have fled Ukraine’s besieged Mariupol

Authorities in Ukraine’s Mariupol on Thursday said around 30,000 people have fled the besieged city and that they were clarifying information on possible victims of the Russian shelling of a theatre sheltering civilians a day earlier.

Mariupol’s city hall said on Telegram that “around 30,000 people have left on their transport”, adding that “80 percent of residential housing was destroyed”. It said it was “clarifying information on victims” of the theatre shelling.

The city hall said on Thursday that a swimming pool also sheltering civilians — “mostly women, children and the elderly” — had also been shelled.

It said that “an average of 50 to 100 air bombs are dropped on the city per day”.

Red Cross Chief calls on warring parties to allow aid into Mariupol

The International Committee of the Red Cross has called on the warring parties to allow safe passage out of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol and allow aid in, the organisation’s head Peter Maurer said on Thursday.

The ICRC had to leave the city on Wednesday, Maurer told a news conference, because its staff had “no operational capacity any more”, but the organisation would be making arrangements to bring aid “as soon as we have a safe way”.

The ICRC was also still seeking access to prisoners of war from both sides in the conflict, adding captured troops should be treated with dignity and not exposed to “public curiosity.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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