UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR Zelenskyy has called on European countries again to support the country’s fight against the invading Russian military.
Zelenskyu appeared on video as he addressed thousands of people protesting against the war in several European cities – naming among them Paris, Prague, Lyon, Frankfurt and others.
He asked the big crowds not to be silent about what is going on in his country.
“Don’t turn a blind eye on this,” he said. “Come out and support Ukraine as much as you can,” he said though a translator.
“If we fall, you will fall,” he said.
“And if we win, and I’m sure we’ll win, this will be the victory of the whole democratic world, this will be the victory of our freedom, this will be the victory of light over darkness, of freedom over slavery,” he said.
“And if we win we will become as blossoming as Europe and Europe will be flourishing more than ever.
“All of you are Ukrainians today, thank you for this.”
More than 1.2 million people have left Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, according to the UN refugee agency.
More than 165,000 people left the country yesterday, down slightly from Wednesday’s count and well under the nearly 200,000 on Tuesday, which amounted to the peak one-day outflow of people from Ukraine since the conflict started.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ data portal on Ukraine showed that the majority, about 650,000, had gone to neighbouring Poland, and roughly 145,000 had fled to Hungary.
Another 103,000 were in Moldova and more than 90,000 in Slovakia.
UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said “we know that the majority are women, children and the elderly”.
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