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Thousands fight to get on trains out of Ukraine’s capital as 40-mile Russian convoy approaches

Pictures from Kyiv station shows hundreds of people in cramped conditions

Furvah Shah
Wednesday 02 March 2022 13:39 EST
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People wait to board an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv at Kyiv central train station following Russia's invasion of Ukraine
People wait to board an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv at Kyiv central train station following Russia's invasion of Ukraine (REUTERS)

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Thousands of people have flocked to Kyiv’s train station to try and leave the capital as 15,000 Russian troops and a 40-mile convoy of military vehicles approaches the city.

Pictures from Kyiv station shows hundreds of people in cramped conditions trying to get on the next train out of the city to escape the war.

Hundreds of thousands of people have already fled the country after the invasion began last Thursday, with chaotic scenes being pictured at the border.

People wait to board an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv at Kyiv central train station following Russia's invasion of Ukraine
People wait to board an evacuation train from Kyiv to Lviv at Kyiv central train station following Russia's invasion of Ukraine (Reuters)
Violence in the capital causes thousands to flee the city on Tuesday, with at least 66,000 people leaving Ukraine altogether
Violence in the capital causes thousands to flee the city on Tuesday, with at least 66,000 people leaving Ukraine altogether (REUTERS)

Russian airstrikes hit residential areas of the capital on Tuesday night and also struck a TV tower, killing five people.

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said via Telegram that Russian troops have been drawing closer to the city while Kyiv official Oleksiy Kuleba said Russian invaders bombed multiple cities and villages in the Kyiv province overnight and this morning.

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Among the areas of Kyiv that were hit include Gorenka, on the outskirts of the city, where many homes were completely destroyed.

It comes after satellite images yesterday showed a 40-mile military convoy approaching Kyiv and residents were warned to leave their homes amidst the violence.

A lady is overwhelmed by emotion in the backyard of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike, according to locals, in Gorenka, outside the capital Kyiv, Ukraine
A lady is overwhelmed by emotion in the backyard of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike, according to locals, in Gorenka, outside the capital Kyiv, Ukraine (AP)

Moscow said it would target security and communications sites in the city, moments before the missile attack on a television tower.

The explosion is also thought to have hit a memorial site for the Babin Yar mass shootings, a Nazi massacre which killed more than 30,000 Jewish people over two days in 1941.

Widespread damage was caused to the city of Gorenka, just outside of Kyiv as violence inches closer to the capital city
Widespread damage was caused to the city of Gorenka, just outside of Kyiv as violence inches closer to the capital city (AP)
A blast is seen in the TV tower in Kyiv, which killed five people amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine,
A blast is seen in the TV tower in Kyiv, which killed five people amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, (REUTERS)

Also on Tuesday, at least 21 people were killed and 112 were injured after a shelling attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

“Russian airborne troops landed in Kharkiv and attacked a local hospital. There is an ongoing fight between the invaders and the Ukrainians,” the Ukrainian military was quoted by AFP as saying.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelensky, called the attack “undisguised terror”.

“Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget. This attack on Kharkiv is a war crime,” he said.

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