Around 1.2 million people have now fled the war in Ukraine, a United Nations official said, as Russian forces have ramped up their strikes against civilian infrastructure in key cities and civilian casualties mount. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi confirmed the staggering figure in a tweet on March 4, which came as the war in Ukraine entered its ninth day on Friday. A day prior that figure stood at 1 million, with around half of the people fleeing the violence in Ukraine heading to neighboring Poland, followed by around 140,000 taken in by Hungary, and around 100,000 going to Moldova. Grandi said on Thursday that in his four decades of work in refugee emergencies, he had rarely seen an exodus as rapid as the one in Ukraine. “Hour by hour, minute by minute, more people are fleeing the terrifying reality of violence. Countless have been displaced inside the country,” he …