Ukraine - Russia Updates: More than one million refugees left Ukraine

As the international criminal court said it had begun collecting evidence of possible war crimes in Ukraine, Kherson’s mayor, Igor Kolykhaiev, said in a Facebook post early on Thursday that Russian troops were in control of the city hall and that residents should obey a curfew imposed by what he called the “armed visitors”.

Amid conflicting reports about the fate of the strategically important city, Kolykhaiev said he had made “no promises” to the Russian forces and that he was “only interested in the normal life of our city! I just asked [them] not to shoot people”.

Other restrictions imposed on the city include a curfew from 8pm until 6am with only cars transporting food, medicines and other necessities permitted to enter the city.

The Russian attack on the city left bodies strewn about the city streets, power outages, limited water and little food, the New York Times reported Kolykhaiev as saying in a separate interview. A group of about 10 armed Russian officers entered the city hall and informed him that they planned to set up a military administration, the mayor added.

'OCCUPIERS ARE VERY DANGEROUS'

Gennady Lakhuta, head of the regional administration, wrote on the messaging service Telegram late on Wednesday that the city had been overrun by Russian troops. “The [Russian] occupiers are in all parts of the city and are very dangerous,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse.

Russian artillery and missiles have continued to bombard other major cities including the capital, Kyiv, where several large explosions were heard on Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

In the second-biggest city, Kharkiv, a Ukrainian member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) monitoring mission was killed in a bombing.

There is also still believed to be fierce fighting in the port of Mariupol in the country’s south-east where Ukrainian forces are surrounded by the Russian-aligned forces. “We cannot even take the wounded from the streets, from apartments, since the shelling does not stop,” its mayor said, adding that Russian attacks had been repelled “with dignity”.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed, according to UN estimates, although the real tally is feared to be much higher. Ukraine’s government said on Wednesday nearly 6,000 Russian troops had been killed. Moscow said the figure was 498.

MORE THAN ONE MILLION PEOPLE EMIGRATED

As the conflict entered its second week the UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, said there had been an “exodus” from Ukraine to neighbouring countries of more than one million people, or around 2% of the population of 44 million.

Grandi appealed for the “guns to fall silent” so humanitarian aid could reach millions more still inside the country, and cautioned that the flood of people escaping the war was far from over and could eventually total 4 million.

APPEALED TO THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

In another dramatic development, the UK and 37 other countries formally referred reports of atrocities committed in Ukraine to the international criminal court (ICC) on Wednesday, the largest such referral in the court’s history.

Under ICC rules, such a referral from member states means the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, has already been able to start collecting evidence for the investigation without waiting for the approval of ICC judges.

Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, in statement: “Putin’s military machine is targeting civilians indiscriminately and tearing through towns across Ukraine. An investigation by the international criminal court into Russia’s barbaric acts is urgently needed and it is right that those responsible are held to account. The UK will work closely with allies to ensure justice is done.”