Ukraine war: Latest figure of four million refugees exceeds worst-case UN estimate
The number of people who have fled Ukraine since Russian troops invaded has surpassed four million, the United Nations reported Wednesday as shelling continued in places where Moscow had vowed to ease its military operations.
"I do not know if we can still believe the Russians,” refugee Nikolay Nazarov, 23, said as he crossed Ukraine's border into Poland with his wheelchair-bound father.
Despite Russia's announcement during talks on Tuesday that its forces would ease their assault near Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, and elsewhere, Nazarov said he expects “more escalation” in the country's east, including the city he and his father fled.
“That is why we cannot go back to Kharkiv," he said. “We are afraid of a new phase of war in eastern Ukraine.”
Nazarov, like other refugees interviewed by The Associated Press, echoed the opinion of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said that given what was happening on the ground, there was no reason to believe Russia’s statement about reducing military activity near Kyiv and in Chernihiv, a besieged northern city.
“We can call those signals that we hear at the negotiations positive,” Zelenskyy said in his address to the Ukrainian people. “But those signals don’t silence the explosions of Russian shells.”
For Diana Konstantynova, a 45-year-old accountant from Vinnytsia in south Ukraine, Russia’s promise to scale back its attacks is not a signal she can safely return home.
“I do not believe in a truce,” said Konstantynova, who fled to Romania with her 8-year-old son a month ago. She says they will only return when “bombs stop exploding in my city” and “when Russian troops completely leave our territory.”
Elena Litvinova, a 33-year-old accountant from
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