The United Nations says a child in Ukraine is becoming a refugee every minute as the Russian invasion intensifies by the day.
At least 1.4 million children have now fled Ukraine since the invasion began on February 24, meaning one child a minute has become a refugee, the UN noted.
“On average, every day over the last 20 days in Ukraine, more than 70,000 children have become refugees, … essentially one child becoming a refugee every minute since the conflict started,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, told reporters in Geneva.
In whole, more than three million people have fled Ukraine, according to the International Organization for Migration, arm of the UN.
“We have now reached the three-million mark in terms of movement of people out of Ukraine,” Aljazeera quoted the IOM spokesman, Paul Dillon.
Russian forces are unrelenting to take over Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv as they unleashed fresh attacks on the city in the early hours of Tuesday.
Emergency service says 27 people were and two people killed after 16-storey building in Kyiv was hit.
This is just as European leaders, including prime ministers of Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia, are set to visit troubled Kyiv.
The Mayor of the capital has announced 36-hour curfew while talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials are expected to resume.