Europe

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — More than 1 million people have fled Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, in the swiftest refugee exodus this century, the United Nations said Thursday, as Russian forces kept up their bombardment of the country’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv, and laid siege to two strategic seaports.

The tally the U.N. refugee agency released to The Associated Press was reached Wednesday and amounts to more than 2% of Ukraine’s population being forced out of the country in less than a week.

MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/: The Russian embassy in London does get threats by telephone and e-mail, but still it maintains normal operation, ambassador Andrey Kelin said on the Rossiya-24 round-the-clock television news channel on Wednesday.

"As far as threats are concerned, we do get them to different telephone numbers at the embassy and by e-mail. Such phone calls do happen, but they are few," Kelin said.

He stressed that the embassy was working as usual.

BRUSSELS, March 2. /TASS/. The European Union has disconnected from the SWIFT interbank payment system seven Russian banks, including VTB, Rossiya, Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank and VEB.RF. Relevant regulations were posted in the EU Official Journal on Wednesday.

"It shall be prohibited as of 12 March 2022 to provide specialized financial messaging services, which are used to exchange financial data," to Russian banks listed in the annex to the decision.

Brussels is ready to add new banks to this list if necessary, the European Commission said.

MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/: Officials from Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia confirmed that the countries are waiting for Russian tourists, the press service of Rostourism (the Federal tourism agency) told journalists on Wednesday.

"Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia confirmed that they are waiting for Russian tourists," the press service said.

MOSCOW, March 2. /TASS/: Berlin's decision to stop certification of the Nord Stream 2 project will cause irreversible damage to Russian-German relations, Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a comment.

MOSCOW, March 2 (Reuters) - Russian officials are ready to hold a second round of talks with Ukraine on Wednesday but it is unclear whether Ukrainian officials will turn up, the Kremlin said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there was contradictory information about the talks, which would follow a meeting at the Belarusian border on Monday that failed to produce a breakthrough. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Russia must stop bombing Ukrainian cities before more talks could take place on Russia's invasion of his country.

MOSCOW, March 2 (Reuters) - A Russian delegation is travelling to a meeting point for talks with Ukrainian counterparts, Belarus' Belta news agency reported ahead of negotiations that are expected to resume later on Wednesday.

Ukrainians said they were fighting on in the southern port of Kherson, the first sizeable city Russia claims to have seized, while Russian air strikes and bombardment caused devastation in cities that Moscow's bogged-down forces have failed to capture.

LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has called on Russians to stage daily protests against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, depicting President Vladimir Putin as an "obviously insane tsar."

Navalny called for protests across the country and abroad to signal that not all Russians support the war and show solidarity with the thousands of people detained in anti-war protests in Russia since last week's invasion.

MOSCOW, March 2 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that if a third World War were to take place, it would involve nuclear weapons and be destructive, the RIA news agency reported.

Lavrov has said that Russia, which launched what it calls a special military operation against Ukraine last week, would face a "real danger" if Kyiv acquired nuclear weapons.

BRUSSELS, March 2 (Reuters) - Early on Saturday morning, some 48 hours after Russian military forces had pushed into his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy put in a call from Kyiv to Brussels with a plea for military assistance.