Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1458198
15 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 9 MARCH 2022 NEWS UKRAINE CONFLICT Ukraine refugee count reaches 2 million as safe corridors are opened for evacuation 7 in 10 Americans polled support ban on Russian oil even if higher prices result MORE than 2 million refugees from Ukraine have fled to neigh- boring countries in response to the Russian invasion, according to United Nations officials. The latest tally comes well into the second week of the Russian invasion and follows previous ef- forts to evacuate Ukrainian civil- ians from the southern port city of Mariupol who were struggling amid the Russian attack. Video posted Tuesday by Ukrainian officials showed bus- es with people moving along a snowy road from the eastern city of Sumy and yellow buses with a red cross on them in the south- ern port of Mariupol. "The Ukrainian city of Sumy was given a green corridor, the first stage of evacuation began," the Ukrainian state communica- tions agency tweeted. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians reportedly have been left with little food, and in many cases lack heat, water and elec- tricity. People continued to try to flee embattled Ukrainian cities along these safe corridors. Safa Msehli, a spokesperson for the U.N.'s International Organ- ization for Migration, tweeted that 2 million have now left, in- cluding at least 100,000 people who are not Ukrainian. Russian and Ukrainian dele- gations had agreed last week to a tentative cessation of fighting along "green" humanitarian cor- ridors to facilitate civilian evac- uations. But the Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerash- chenko said Sunday Russia was not honoring the agreement. Those discussions have contin- ued. Russian forces have not been able to control Kyiv, but have made advances in southern Ukraine. Russia's army is much big- ger and has superior firepower. Nonetheless, Ukraine has in- flicted heavy losses against the Russian forces. President Volodymyr Zelen- skyy of Ukraine also resurfaced late Monday night, according to The New York Times, releasing a brief video on his Facebook page from his office in Kyiv, say- ing he was not hiding. "We used to say: Monday is a hard day," he said. "There is a war in the country so every day is Monday, and now we are used to the fact that every day and every night are like that." Displaced Ukrainians queue to board a bus to Poland outside Lviv train station in western Ukraine MORE than 70 percent of Amer- icans surveyed in a new poll say the Biden administration should ban Russian oil over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, even if it leads to higher gas prices in the US. The Quinnipiac poll found that 71 percent of Americans support a ban on Russian oil, including 66 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats. Slightly more than one in five respondents -- 22 percent -- were opposed and 7 percent did not know or did not answer. Congress could vote on legisla- tion banning Russian oil within days, as support for the initiative appears to be growing. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca- lif.), for example, has said she is "all for it." President Biden's administra- tion had initially been opposed to a ban on imports from the world's third-largest oil produc- er amid soaring domestic gas prices. But as Russia's invasion of Ukraine intensifies, admin- istration officials have softened their position. Western nations have slapped Russia with numerous sanctions that have punished the coun- try's economy, however most Americans in the new poll say the measures imposed by the US have not been strong enough. According to the survey, 56 percent of Americans say the US has not been tough enough, while 30 percent say the Biden administration's measures have been about right. When asked if Biden is re- sponding to Russia's invasion well, Americans are more split, with 42 percent approving and 45 percent disapproving, includ- ing 76 percent of Republicans disapproving and 77 percent of Democrats approving. The poll also shows that most Americans — 78 percent — sup- port accepting Ukrainian refu- gees into the US. And most Americans support fighting back against Russia should its forces attack a mem- ber of NATO, a security alliance that ensures an attack against one country is an attack against all. About 79 percent of Americans support fighting Russia were it to attack a NATO ally. The poll of 1,374 adults, con- ducted between March 4 and March 6, has a sampling error of 2.6 percentage points.