The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Monday said that eight people were killed and others were wounded including the mayor, while attempting to evacuate a northwest suburb of Kyiv.
Anatoliy Fedoruk, the mayor of Bucha, was wounded in the evacuation efforts, which were still ongoing as of noon on Monday, according to the ministry.
While Russia had agreed to allow civilians from some cities to safely evacuate, officials say that Russian troops have violated those cease-fire promises.
One of those violations took place in Irpin, where Russian troops shelled residents, killing at least two small children, according to a video on Sunday from Irpin Mayor Alexandar Markushin, The Washington Post reported.
“The shell hit, and in front of my own eyes died two small children and two adults,” Markushin said. “I want to emphasize these were peaceful residents.”
The United Nations has said that Moscow’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine has prompted the “fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.”
“More than 1.5 million refugees from Ukraine have crossed into neighboring countries in 10 days,” the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, wrote on Twitter. “The fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.”
Intelligence agencies in the U.S. have predicted that anywhere from 1 million to 5 million Ukrainians could be displaced as a result of the conflict.
The UN estimated last week that roughly 1 million Ukrainians had already left the country, accounting for about 2 percent of the country’s population.