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against Russia.

The UN said 836,000 people have fled since the conflict began seven days ago, including many students and migrant workers from Africa and the Middle East who had been living in Ukraine.

“We left everything there as they came and ruined our lives,” said Svitlana Mostepanenko, a refugee registering in Prague.

In his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, US President Joe Biden warned the sanctions campaign to cripple Russia’s economy would escalate and its oligarchs were being targeted, reports AFP.

Russian troops rolled into Ukraine last week to achieve Putin’s mission of overthrowing Zelensky’s government and “denazifying” the pro-Western country.

But Ukrainian troops have fought back hard and prevented Russia from capturing the country’s biggest cities.

Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said yesterday Russian forces were in “full control” of Kherson.

He said talks were under way between the Russian army and local authorities on maintaining order, protecting the population and keeping public services functioning.

US satellite images, meanwhile, show that Russia has massed artillery and armoured cars near Kyiv, raising fears of an imminent assault.

As the civilian death toll mounts, there is growing opposition to the conflict within Russia, with thousands detained for taking part in anti-war protests.

Western countries have already imposed crippling sanctions on Russia’s economy. In the latest development, the EU banned broadcasts of Russian state media RT and Sputnik and excluded seven Russian banks from the global SWIFT bank messaging system.

The invasion has sent global markets into a spiral, with crude surging past $110 a barrel yesterday and equities sinking.