Day 7: Ukrainians feeling weight of war

In village streets, city basements and train stations, the faces of Ukrainians reflected the steep emotional toll a week into Russian's invasion of their country. 

Volunteer fighters in their 60s picked through the remains of shattered homes as elderly neighbors wept at the destruction caused by what residents called a Russian airstrike in Gorenka, a village on the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital that has found itself in the crossfire as Moscow attempts to take Kyiv.

In the country's largest city, families settled into subway stations or crowded into basements seeking sheltering from Russian airstrikes. 

Thousands of Ukrainians have been fleeing the city through the sprawling railway complex. The United Nations said more than 870,000 people have fled Ukraine in a mounting refugee crisis on the European continent.

Ukrainian volunteers sort donated foods for later distribution to the local population while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appears on television in Lviv, western Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A woman runs as she flees with her family across a destroyed bridge in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2. 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

People gather in the Kyiv subway, using it as a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

A baby sits with his mother inside a train leaving the Lviv railway station, in Lviv, west Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

A woman cries outside houses damaged by a Russian airstrike, according to locals, in Gorenka, outside the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

Flames and smoke rise from a damaged gym following shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Members of the Ukrainian territorial defense guard a checkpoint in Gorenka, outside the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A rocket fragment lies on the ground next to a building of Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) after a rocket attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Marienko)

Passengers rush to board a train leaving to Slovakia from the Lviv railway station, in Lviv, west Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

French teacher Pjotr Vyerko, 81, holds a rifle standing behind the broken window of a bedroom in his house which was damaged by the shock waves of a Russian airstrike in Gorenka, outside the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. Vyerko said he's prepared to use his rifle to shoot invaders because he has a daughter and grandson. ÒIf they come here, IÕll jab them with a pitchfork if I donÕt have weapons -- but I do have weapons,Ó he said. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A woman cries in the small basement of a house crowded with people seeking shelter from Russian airstrikes, outside the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A woman is overwhelmed by emotion in the backyard of a house damaged by a Russian airstrike, according to locals, in Gorenka, outside the capital Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

A woman from Ukraine covered with a blanket, stands at a train station in Przemysl, southeastern Poland, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A Polish soldier carries a baby of a Ukrainian refugee upon their arrival at the border crossing in Medyka, southeastern Poland, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Actors comfort each other inside the dressing room of a theatre used as a temporary shelter for displaced people during an air raid siren in Lviv, western Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A girl which fled from the war in Ukraine reunites with her father after crossing the border in Medyka, southeastern Poland, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

A woman, who did not want to be identified, poses for a photograph as she holds her newborn girl in the basement of a maternity hospital converted into a medical ward and used as a bomb shelter during air raid alerts, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Ukrainian soldiers check people's identity cards as they flee their neighborhoods, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 2. 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A man carries combat gear as he leaves Poland to fight in Ukraine, at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Police detain a demonstrator against Russia's attack on Ukraine in St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

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