Russia-Ukraine live updates: Ukraine denounces evacuation routes leading to Russia, Belarus

People fleeing Ukraine — mostly women and children — continue to arrive in Poland, the main country where Ukrainians are seeking safety from Russia’s bombardment, along with other neighboring nations including Romania, Slovakia and Hungary.

The Polish Border Guard said in a tweet Sunday that more than 1 million people had crossed into the country since Feb. 24.

There are “a million human tragedies, a million people banished from their homes by the war,” the tweet said. “A million people who, after crossing the border, heard from our border guard officers: ‘You are safe.’ ”

“Check-in is as simplified as possible,” Polish Border Guard spokeswoman Anna Michalska told Reuters. “The point is to confirm the identity of persons, verify documents, check the databases if they are not wanted persons. It takes a few minutes.”

At a border crossing in the village of Medyka, some huddled under blankets in low temperatures, while young children rested among teddy bears and donated clothing. Others held one another, and their pets, close.

After more than a week of devastating war, the race is on to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. But what world leader could earn the trust of both Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine suggests a paranoid and aggrieved mind-set, and his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, who has made clear he is willing to fight to the end for his country?

When conflict erupted between Russia and Ukraine in 2014, following Moscow’s support for separatists in Donbas and its annexation of Crimea, European powers France and Germany played that mediating role in what was dubbed the Normandy format. Belarus’s capital became the site of negotiations that eventually led to the Minsk agreements. But the Minsk agreements stalled, in part because Kyiv felt they were unfair because they were negotiated from a position of weakness.

Eight people were killed and more were wounded during an evacuation over the weekend of civilians in Irpin, a city northwest of Kyiv, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Monday. The wounded included the mayor of the nearby town of Bucha, the ministry said.

Russia has said it would allow the evacuation of civilians from some besieged Ukrainian cities, but authorities on the ground have accused Russian forces of violating promised cease-fires designed to facilitate safe passage. The evacuation of Irpin was ongoing as of noon local time on Monday.

Irpin Mayor Alexandar Markushin said in a video Sunday that Russian troops shelled the town’s residents as they were preparing to evacuate by bus to nearby cities. “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.”

Photographs and videos from journalists on the ground showed harrowing images of the lifeless bodies of several people — including two children — sprawled on the ground moments after the attack.

The Foreign Ministry said Monday an attempt to create a “green corridor” for civilians to safely flee Irpin failed, with eight dead and more wounded, including the mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk.

Separately, the city council of Hostomel, another suburb of Kyiv, said Sunday that its leader, Yuri Prylipko, was shot by Russian forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday awarded the title of “Hero City” to Hostomel and five other locations in Ukraine that have been the target of Russian forces, local media outlets reported.

Paulina Villegas, David Stern and Sarah Cahlan contributed to this report.

Senior U.S. officials flew to Venezuela on Saturday for a meeting with President Nicolás Maduro’s government to discuss the possibility of easing sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports as the Biden administration considers a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas, according to two people familiar with the situation, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic talks.

The trip is the highest-level U.S. visit to the socialist nation in years and comes as the United States is seeking to isolate Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Venezuela, the Kremlin’s most important ally in South America, used to be a significant supplier of crude to the United States before exports were hobbled by domestic mismanagement and major sanctions from Washington.

In recent weeks, former American lawmakers have pushed for the United States to ban Russian oil and gas exports while lifting restrictions on Venezuela, home to the world’s largest oil reserves.

The U.S. delegation included Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs; Juan Gonzalez, the National Security Council’s senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs; and Jimmy Story, the U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, said one person familiar with the visit.

The State Department and the White House declined to comment.

In recent weeks, some U.S. investors have called on the administration to lift sanctions on Venezuela so it can send more crude oil into the market, the Wall Street Journal reported. Chevron has also lobbied the administration to modify its license to accept and trade oil in Venezuela.

But some Republicans, such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), have criticized the decision by U.S. officials to travel to Venezuela, a trip reported earlier by the New York Times.

Russian forces fired mortar shells Sunday at a town on the outskirts of Kyiv, sending panicked residents running for their lives and killing at least eight people, including a family, according to a local government official.

Irpin Mayor Alexandar Markushin said in a video Sunday that Russian troops shelled the town’s residents as they were preparing to evacuate by bus to nearby cities.

“The shell hit, and in front of my own eyes died two small children and two adults,” he said. “I want to emphasize these were peaceful residents.”

Photographs and videos from journalists on the ground showed harrowing images of several people — including two children — sprawled on the ground moments after the attack. A gray roller suitcase eerily stood next to the lifeless bodies.

The images were widely shared on social media and prompted outrage and condemnation by Ukrainian authorities, who have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of increasingly targeting residential neighborhoods across the country in recent days.

“The whole family,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “How many families have died like this in Ukraine! We won’t forgive.”

PARIS — Russia did not show up for a hearing at the United Nations’ top court on Monday, effectively boycotting Ukrainian efforts to seek an immediate end to the fighting.

The proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague went ahead without Russia’s presence.

The case centers on Russia’s official explanation for its invasion of Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin has said is intended to achieve the “denazification” of Ukraine and end a “genocide” in the country’s east. There is no evidence to support Russia’s claims.

Representatives of Ukraine reiterated Monday that the Russian accusations are false and represent a pretext for an illegal invasion.

Ukraine seeks an emergency order that would require Russia to halt its invasion. Both countries have signed the 1948 treaty on the prevention of genocide, and Russia would in theory be mandated to follow the court’s decision. But Russia’s absence from the proceedings on Monday suggested that the Kremlin may choose to ignore the outcome.

Last Tuesday, ICJ President Joan E. Donoghue urged Russia’s foreign minister to “act in such a way” that a court order — including one that may order Russia to halt hostilities — can “have its appropriate effects.”

Russia has a chance to respond to the Ukrainian claims on Tuesday. But one of its longtime lawyers, Alain Pellet, resigned last week, writing in an open letter that it “has become impossible to represent in forums dedicated to the application of the law a country that so cynically despises it.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the more than 1 million Ukrainians who have fled to neighboring countries since, illustrates the need for a “better system” for the distribution of refugees in Europe and elsewhere, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Monday.

Grandi said people in the initial wave of those fleeing Ukraine are more likely to have the resources and connections to go. But the crisis may soon enter a second phase, he said, made up of refugees with fewer resources and nowhere to run, placing a burden on the countries near Ukraine, such as Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

“This is where we need a more structured system in the E.U. and certainly beyond the E.U. [for] … how to share this responsibility,” Grandi said, pointing to the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and other nations.

The European Union last week unanimously adopted a never-before-used directive granting Ukrainian refugees temporary rights to live, work and study in E.U. member states for at least a year. The directive calls for “measures promoting a balance of efforts between Member States in receiving [displaced] persons and bearing the consequences thereof.”

“I do hope that this, in the end, is the silver lining of this crisis, that Europe understands that any country can become [a] recipient of large numbers of refugees and need the help of others,” Grandi said.

The price of a barrel of oil briefly hit $139 on Monday, its highest level