An estimated 2,155,271 refugees have fled Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of the country, with the majority escaping to Poland, according to statistics posted Wednesday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as those in Mariupol reel from the aftermath of a bombing at a maternity hospital.
Of that, 1,294,903 refugees were estimated to have fled to Poland, the UNHCR found. Nationwide, thousands are thought to have been killed, both civilians and soldiers, in the two weeks of fighting since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded.
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The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported Wednesday that 516 civilians were killed in Ukraine, and 908 were injured. Of the 516 killed, 37 were reported to be children.
The office believes the numbers are much higher than has been reported so far.
Meanwhile, a Russian attack severely damaged a maternity hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol, Ukraine said Wednesday. Citizens trying to escape shelling on the outskirts of Kyiv streamed toward the capital amid warnings from the West that Moscow’s invasion is about to take a more brutal and indiscriminate turn.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Twitter that there were “people, children under the wreckage” of the hospital and called the strike an “atrocity.” Authorities said they were trying to establish how many people had been killed or wounded.
Video shared by Zelenskyy showed cheerfully painted hallways strewn with twisted metal and room after room with blown-out windows. Floors were covered in wreckage. Outside, a small fire burned, and debris covered the ground.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
