Category Archives: Ukraine

As 1.3 million people flee, Ukraine’s refugee crisis is only just beginning

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Analysis: despite the EU’s solidarity in helping those escaping war, aid agencies are overwhelmed with many people stuck at borders

Just over a week after Russian rockets first began to slam into Ukraine, more than 1.3 million people have fled over the borders of neighbouring European countries into a frightening and uncertain future. What we are witnessing, the United Nations has warned, is the largest refugee crisis in a century.

All week, the world has watched families fighting to board trains in chaotic crowds, fathers kissing their children goodbye through car windows, and seen the shock and exhaustion on the faces of those who have made it to safety.

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Ukraine fundraiser hits £85m as charities say money needed more than goods

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Disasters Emergency Committee chief says ‘things people give today might not be what is needed tomorrow’

More than £85m has been raised to provide aid in Ukraine, in an “absolutely incredible” show of support from the UK public.

But the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has urged people to donate money rather than goods to help those affected by the conflict.

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Boris Johnson praises ‘astonishing’ courage of UK journalists shot by Russian hit squad

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Prime minister says press reporting conflict will not be cowed after Sky News team ambushed near Kyiv

Boris Johnson has praised British journalists who were hit by bullets in Ukraine and said press reporting on the conflict “will not be intimidated or cowed”.

The prime minister commended the “astonishing” courage of the Sky News journalists, who he said were “putting themselves in terrifying and dangerous situations”.

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Footage shows aftermath of Russian airstrike in Ukraine’s Bila Tserkva – video

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Footage released by the Ukrainian national police shows burning debris and damaged buildings after an airstrike on the town of Bila Tserkva, just over 60 miles from Kyiv

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‘We understand what war means’: Poles rush to aid Ukraine’s refugees

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Ordinary citizens are volunteering time and money – but the pleas for the government to do more are getting urgent

In a giant food depot in Poland, a few miles from the border with Belarus, thousands of people, many of them women and children wrapped in woollen blankets, are crammed together in corridors and hallways. As Polish locals and volunteers frantically work alongside soldiers to try to distribute food and water to those most in need, buses pull up outside carrying more shellshocked and exhausted people needing help.

There is no attempt to register the new arrivals. There is no time. Just over a week since Russia invaded Ukraine, those working here know that this crisis has just begun. Since the violence began, more than 650,000 people have crossed into Poland, leaving their lives behind and becoming refugees.

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Be open, be honest and listen: how to talk to children about Ukraine

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Hearing parents say ‘It’s OK to feel scared and I’m here to listen’ might provide comfort

How should we deal with children’s anxiety over what’s happening in Ukraine?

I wonder if the question should be: how do we deal with our own? Our kids will pick up on how we are feeling and are likely to mirror our own emotive state. Even if you don’t mean to expose them to news, children will realise that something is going on. It may not concern younger children at all but those who are a bit older or old enough to have a smartphone may well be worried, and even work themselves up into a bit of a frenzy.

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UK nationals should leave Russia while they can, Foreign Office says

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Website update advises Britons to ‘consider leaving by remaining commercial routes’

The UK government has urged British nationals in Russia whose presence is “not essential” to consider leaving the country amid the mounting crisis in Ukraine.

The Foreign Office said it had updated its travel advice to say that Britons who can should use the remaining commercial routes to leave Russia.

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Italy seizes yachts and villas from Russian oligarchs, say state sources

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Authorities clamp down on wealthy individuals placed on EU sanctions list over Russian invasion of Ukraine

Italian police have seized villas and yachts worth at least €140m (£126m) from four high-profile Russians who were placed on an EU sanctions list after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, sources said on Saturday.

A police source said a villa owned by the billionaire businessman Alisher Usmanov on Sardinia, and a villa on Lake Como owned by the Russian state TV host Vladimir Soloviev, had both been seized.

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Zelenskiy attacks Nato ‘weakness’ for refusing no-fly zone over Ukraine – video

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The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has criticised Nato for refusing to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying the decision gave 'the green light for further bombing' of the country.

In an emotional nighttime address, he said: 'All the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you, because of your weakness, because of your lack of unity.'

Nato warned on Friday that imposing a no-fly zone could provoke full-fledged war in Europe with Russia. 

Zelenskiy said Nato countries had created a narrative that a no-fly zone would provoke Russian aggression against Nato

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‘I can’t believe this is happening’: the refugees trying to escape Ukraine – video

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Volunteers at a railway station in Lviv in western Ukraine are doing all they can to help refugees flee the violence of Putin’s invasion and reach safety. Lviv is less than 50 miles from the Polish border and thousands of people have been arriving daily from the rest of country. The Guardian spends the day with one volunteer named Sergyi Mykolaiv 

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Missile interrupts Kharkiv blogger’s live recording – video

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A blogger in Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv had been recording a video message to his followers as an airstrike hit near him. Nikita Demenkov was telling his followers about the use of donations they had sent when a missile exploded above him on Wednesday. The blast sent him scrambling to seek shelter in a basement.

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‘The worst possible nightmare’: voices from Ukrainian football as war rages

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Four players and a coach with Ukrainian clubs reveal how their lives have been turned upside down by Russia’s invasion

On the day the war began, I was in Kyiv with my family. I have been injured recently, so could not train with the team. At 5am my young son awoke, and my wife got up to calm him. Then we heard the explosions, one after the other. We thought there had been an accident, but then we read online that the war had begun. We quickly began to gather our belongings. I am Georgian, and was in Georgia in 2008 when Russia attacked our country, so this is not the first time I’ve been through a war. I told my wife: “Let’s get ready more quickly.” I drove the car closer to our house, loaded it with things and then waited for a couple of my teammates. They are foreigners and also have young families. We drove away from Kyiv together.

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Sky News journalists evacuated after being shot at by Russian ‘death squad’

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Footage shows team’s vehicle being attacked by a Russian ambush squad on Monday near Kyiv

A Sky News crew has been evacuated back to the UK from Ukraine after journalists were shot during an ambush by a suspected Russian “death squad” on Monday.

The team of five were attacked while out in a car, after unsuccessfully trying to visit the town of Bucha near Kyiv.

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Italian police seize yacht owned by Russia’s richest man

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$27m boat impounded after EU blacklists owner Alexei Mordashov following Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine

Italian police have seized a yacht owned by Alexei Mordashov, the richest man in Russia before being blacklisted this week by the European Union following Moscow’s attack on Ukraine.

The 65-metre (215-ft) “Lady M” was impounded in the northern Italian port of Imperia.

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Cheers erupt as Ukraine president addresses huge protest in Prague via video link – video

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The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed crowds in several European cities remotely, appealing for support as the Russian invasion of his country continued. 

Zelenskiy appeared via video link in cities including Prague, Paris and Frankfurt. He appealed for people to do what they could to support Ukraine, and led the crowd in a moment of silence for those who had died in the conflict, according to local media

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International students trapped in Ukraine appeal for urgent evacuation

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At least 1,200 foreign students are thought to be stranded in Sumy, with some running out of food and water

International students trapped in a Ukrainian town near the Russian border have made desperate appeals for evacuation, as the number thought to be stranded in Sumy has risen to between 1,200 and 1,500, and they are running out of basic supplies.

Jana Kalaaji, a Syrian-Lebanese student who has been at the city’s university for a year, said: “There’s no electricity now. There is no water. There is no tapwater. There are no supplies. There is no heat because the heat comes with electricity.”

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Ukraine war a ‘catastrophe’ for global economy as stock markets plunge

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Moscow stock exchange remained closed during the week, while the rouble fell to record lows

The London stock market has suffered its biggest weekly losses since the start of the global pandemic in March 2020, as investors took fright at the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.

Shares plunged in the City following news of a fire and Russian capture of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, with the one-day drop of more than 250 points in the FTSE 100 index taking the weekly loss to 6.7%.

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Footage shows damage inside Ukraine nuclear power plant after Russia attack – video

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Footage shows damage to a walkway at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after it was attacked by Russia. 

The footage was posted by Energoatom, the Ukrainian state enterprise that operates all four nuclear power stations in Ukraine. It shows a hole in the roof of the walkway, a smashed window and damage to pipes, as well as what appears to be a shell casing

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Russian forces push to take key port of Odesa as fighting near Kyiv rages

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The shipbuilding city of Mykolaiv seen as next key stepping stone for Russian forces in Ukraine

Russian ground forces began their long expected push west towards the key port of Odesa in the south of Ukraine with an assault of the shipbuilding centre of Mykolaiv, as the area around the capital Kyiv came under fresh heavy attack.

Mykolaiv, where Ukrainian officials say they repelled a Russian attack, is seen as the next key stepping stone for Russian forces on the road to Odesa, which came under naval shell fire on Friday, after taking the key southern city of Kherson earlier this week.

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