26 February 2022: The United Nations estimated there could be millions of refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries .
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested on Friday that it would be "easier" to negotiate with the Ukrainian Army than with politicians in Kyiv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian leader was "ready" to send a high-level delegation "for talks with a Ukrainian delegation" to Belarusian capital Minsk.
More than 50,000 people have fled the country since Russia began its invasion on Thursday. At least another 100,000 people within the country have been uprooted and displaced. The United Nations estimated there could be millions of refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries following Russian President Putin's order of the military invasion of Ukraine. The majority of refugees arrived in Poland and Moldova, but there are "many more moving towards its borders," the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi posted on twitter.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its first day of the Ukraine invasion had achieved all its goals and that it had destroyed 83 land-based Ukrainian targets. Ukrainian police said Russia had carried out 203 attacks since the beginning of the day. Fierce fighting was taking place in the regions of Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson and Odessa in the south. The Russian forces captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, just 90 km north of the capital, and Hostomel airport in the Kyiv region, where paratroopers had earlier been landed. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukrainians to defend their country and said arms would be given to anyone prepared to fight. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had repeatedly called for talks with the Russian leader during a weeks-long diplomatic push in which Western countries tried to deter Putin from launching an attack. Hours before Putin announced he was sending troops to Ukraine, Zelensky said he tried to call the Kremlin chief but "there was no answer, only silence".
Devastating and heart-breaking pictures from Ukraine are surfacing everyday from the conflict ridden country. People are seeing gathering in huge numbers in metro stations which they are treating as bomb shelters. Missiles are raining down, tearing cities apart. Bomb sirens can be heard all over the country. The Western countries, along with NATO are not seen taking any radical measures to de-escalate the tension, except slapping Russia with financial sanctions. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded with the international community to do more, saying sanctions announced so far were not enough. Anti-war protests are taking place all over the world especially in the European countries demanding an immediate end to the disaster. Even in Russia, protestors took the streets, condemning the attack. In St Petersburg, protesters started gathering outside the historic Gostiny Dvor shopping arcade.“Ukraine is not our enemy!” and “Russia is against war!” the crowd was heard cheering and clapping.