Ukraine fighting spirals with hundreds feared dead in port city, sieges elsewhere
KYIV, Ukraine — Hundreds were feared dead in the embattled Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Thursday after more than a day of Russian bombardment left buildings in ruins and civilians cowering in terror. Moscow’s invading forces also stepped up a siege of other key cities, including a crucial power-generating city in the country’s south.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine shuddered into a second week, the full extent of a European refugee crisis on a scale not seen since World War II was coming into focus. An estimated 1 million Ukrainians — half of them children — have sought refuge outside the country, the United Nations and humanitarian organizations say.
The total number of those displaced internally and externally could grow to a staggering 10 million, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The ferocity of the fighting has been escalating daily. Russian forces unleashed a fresh barrage of artillery fire, rockets and air attacks Thursday on Mariupol, a
