In Poland's capital city Warsaw, thousands of Ukrainian refugees waited in long lines on Saturday to secure ID cards that offer them a chance to start new lives after fleeing their war-torn country, even if only temporarily.

Refugees started queuing by Warsaw's National Stadium overnight to get the coveted PESEL identity cards that will allow them to work, live, go to school and get medical care or social benefits for the next 18 months. Still, by mid-morning, many were told to come back another day, the demand was too high even though Polish authorities had simplified the process.

“I’m very impressed with Polish people as they were so kind,” said one woman standing in the line. “We are new here ... we are just looking and trying to adapt to new life.”

Poland has so far taken in more than 2 million refugees from Ukraine – the bulk of more than 3.3 million people that the U.N. says have fled since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Hundreds of thousands more have also streamed into Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Romania.

Most of the refugees fleeing Ukraine have been women and children, because men aged 18 to 60 are forbidden from leaving the country and have stayed to fight.

Polish authorities said more than 123,000 refugees have been given the ID numbers – including more than 1,000 each day in Warsaw – since the program was launched Wednesday.

Svetlana, a Ukrainian woman from Ivano-Frankivsk who has lived and worked in Poland for over 10 years, has had relatives come now to Poland as well. She said receiving the Polish ID numbers will make a huge difference for everyone from Ukraine.

“This is really so important to us that we can officially look for work, send children to school and be active here,” Svetlana said. “It really changes the way we feel here.”

Refugees can receive one-time benefit of 300 zlotys ($70) per person and a monthly benefit for each child under 18 of 500 zlotys ($117). Those who find jobs will have to pay taxes on their earnings just like Poles.

Pavlo Masechko, a 17-year-old from Novovolynsk in the Volyn region of western Ukraine, has been trying to rebuild his life in the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszow. Before the war, Masechko had plans to come to Poland to study when he finished high school, but he says being forced out of his country by war is something completely different.

“This is so stressful to leave your country in this moment like this,” said Masechko, who has joined a local school in Poland since arriving. Now, Masechko's Ukrainian teacher is seeking to organize classes online that were suspended when Russia attacked.

“When the situation started, it was very difficult for me to focus on other things. But time passed and now the situation is more stable and stable in my head also," he said. “I have started to focus again on other things in my life."

Many of the refugees from Ukraine have since moved on to other countries in Europe, mostly to stay with friends and family. Some, however, have chosen to go back home even as the end of the conflict is nowhere in sight.

Among them was 41-year-old Viktoria, who was waiting Saturday with her teenage daughter Alisa to board a train back to Zhitomyr in central Ukraine.

“For the last five days it has been quiet," said Viktoria. “Our local authorities are good. They prepared everything for us there so we can go back to work, have normal life and children can have online education.”

Alisa said she is not afraid to return and wants to reunite with the rest of the family who are still in Ukraine./AP

A violent attack took place in a local mosque early Saturday in one of Canada's populated cities, Mississauga.

Speaking exclusively to Anadolu Agency, Imam Ibrahim Hindy said the worshipers heard the noise of a man emptying pepper spray all over them as they were praying the dawn prayer.

"They turned around and saw this man had an ax in his hand and he was spraying them with pepper spray. It seemed like he wanted to spray everyone and create like a cloud before he attacked them," Hindy said, adding that those at the mosque "quickly overpowered" the attacker.

One of those who had stopped the suspect was a 19-year-old young man, he noted, saying "he (the young man) was able to push him down, and then they were able to pin the attacker down and hold him down until the police were able to arrive."

Hindy further noted that no one was seriously injured but a "number of them are still feeling the effects of the pepper spray."

Local police in the Peel region of Ontario, Canada, issued a statement saying: "Officers from 12 Division have arrested a Mississauga man responsible for a possible hate-motivated crime that occurred at a Mosque in the City of Mississauga."

Just around 7 a.m. local time (1100GMT), "a man walked into the Mosque and discharged bear spray towards the members of the Mosque while brandishing a hatchet. The members of the Mosque quickly subdued the man until police arrived," according to the police report.

A 24-year-old man, also from Mississauga, was arrested as the police said the charges are pending. Local police said it is considering all possible motivations for the act, including hate crime.

The investigation on the incident is ongoing, added the police.

Meanwhile, responding to a question on rising Islamophobia in Canada, Imam Hindy said: "There's no question that's on our minds."

Citing the incident in New Zealand's Christchurch where mosques were attacked and people killed, Hindy also recalled the "Quebec mosque shooting where the people in the masjid were killed by assailants who came with a with a with a gun to the mosque."

"So that's for sure what all of us are thinking and worried about, we don't know 100% what the motivations are here. ... we were attacked at the time of prayer. And that's something, that's very worrying," he added.

"Islamophobia is real. We know that, you know, unfortunately, it's in this country (Canada) as well," Hindy said.

"There's a lot of racism, unfortunately, that has taken place. And so those are things that are top of mind. We don't want to speculate on 100% of what happened until we have all of the facts."

He also urged Canadian officials to provide more "added protection of places of worship," as there have been multiple incidents now that have happened.

"We need added protection at places of worship. We need more law enforcement ensuring that there's protection for people who are going to worship and we want politicians to be enlightened to the dangers of hatred and Islamophobia, and mental health issues that exist in this country. It's for them to try to tackle that comprehensively."

The National Council of Canadian Muslims also issued a statement regarding the incident saying: "Our community will never be broken and we refuse to be intimidated."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Twitter described the incident as "incredibly disturbing" as he "strongly condemned" it.

"I strongly condemn this violence – which has no place in Canada – and I’m keeping the community in my thoughts today. I also want to applaud the courage of those who were there this morning," he added.

FIFA on Saturday sent medical kits to the Ukrainian football body and allocated $1 million to the FIFA Foundation for the war victims in the country. 

"An initial shipment of humanitarian supplies has already been delivered to the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF), while a total of USD 1 million has been allocated for action to be taken," the world football's governing body said in a statement.

"In the face of this conflict, we want to do our part and support the people in Ukraine and the ones who have fled the war," FIFA President Gianni Infantino said.

The Russia-Ukraine war since on Feb. 24 has drawn international condemnation, led to financial restrictions on Moscow, and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.

At least 847 civilians have been killed and 1,399 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, according to the UN, while noting that conditions on the ground make it difficult to verify the true number.

Over 3.32 million people have also fled to neighboring countries, said the UN refugee agency./aa

The number of civilian deaths recorded since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine has reached 847, while 1,399 more have been injured, the UN Human Rights Office said on Saturday. 

"OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, especially in Government-controlled territory and especially in recent days," said the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes, according to the rights office.

It said receipt of information "from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration."

This concerns, for example, Izyum in the Kharkiv region, and Mariupol and Volnovakha in the Donetsk region, where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties.

Russia began its war against Ukraine on Feb. 24. It has drawn international condemnation, led to financial sanctions on Moscow, and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.

More than 3.32 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, according to the UN./aa

African countries will pay higher prices for wheat and others could even face shortages in the coming weeks as the Russian war on Ukraine escalates, experts told Anadolu Agency. 

“South Africa imports wheat from Ukraine and Russia but due to the ongoing conflict, we expect to see a wheat shortage, and oil prices have already gone up,” Dirk Kotze, a political scientist at the University of South Africa, told Anadolu Agency.

According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, Russia and Ukraine are major global food producers and exporters.

Russia is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, and Ukraine is the fifth-largest. Together, they provide 19% of the world’s barley supply, 14% of wheat, and 4% of maize, making up more than one-third of global cereal exports.

They also account for 52% of the world’s sunflower oil export market and Russia is a leading global fertilizer producer.

In a text message to Anadolu Agency, Wandile Sihlobo, the chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, said, South Africa will not face food shortage issues in the foreseeable future but prices of food will certainly go up.

South Africa imports mainly wheat and sunflower oil from Russia and Ukraine, he said.

“Over the past five years (2016-2020), South Africa imported an average of 1.8 million tons of wheat per calendar year, roughly half the annual wheat consumption needs. Of this, wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine averaged 34% and 4%, respectively,’’ said Shilobo.

The economist said that this year, South Africa has already imported 40% of its estimated imports of 1.5 million tons of wheat, while the remaining balance will be received from other countries at a much higher cost than the volumes already imported from Russia and Ukraine. This will cause a rise in wheat prices in South Africa.

South Africa also exports products such as citrus, nuts, vegetables, and tobacco to Russia and Ukraine.

Iqbal Jassat, an executive at the Johannesburg-based think tank Media Review Network, told Anadolu Agency, that Africa will indeed be adversely affected by Russia’s military offensive.

“The fact that the continent's dependence on external sources for basic food supply such as wheat, grain cooking oil, and fuel has remained long after gaining independence from colonial powers, makes Africa extremely vulnerable,” said Jassat.

Many African countries that import wheat from Russia and Ukraine have also expressed concern that if the conflict continues and sanctions against Russia hold, then, they will have to bear with high wheat prices sourced from elsewhere.

Rebeca Grynspan, the head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, said in a recent report that “soaring food and fuel prices will affect the most vulnerable in developing countries, putting pressure on the poorest households which spend the highest share of their income on food, resulting in hardship and hunger."

Grynspan said Russia’s war came during the global coronavirus pandemic and will accelerate existing vulnerabilities and widen inequalities across the world.

Sultan Kakuba, a political scientist at Uganda's Kyambogo University, told Anadolu Agency that as long as the conflict continues, African economies will not be safe as oil prices shoot up, leading to rising commodity prices and inflation./aa

Belgium has delayed its plan to phase out nuclear energy by 2025, a decision driven by concerns over soaring energy prices after Russia declared war on Ukraine. 

“The federal government has decided to take the necessary steps to extend the life of two nuclear reactors by 10 years,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in a statement on Friday.

“This extension will strengthen our country’s independence from fossil fuels in a turbulent geopolitical environment.”

The Belgian government unveiled a plan last year to decommission its nuclear power plants by 2025, but the uncertainty in global energy supplies sparked by the Russia-Ukraine war has forced it to defer the move.

De Croo said the operating lives of two of Belgium’s seven nuclear reactors, one near Antwerp and the other close to Liege, will be extended by a decade.

The government will also set up two natural gas power plants, he added.

Belgium will also accelerate renewable energy investments, including an additional €1 billion ($1.10 million) for wind and solar energy projects, according to De Croo./aa

A total of 9,145 people have been evacuated through humanitarian corridors in Ukraine in the last 24 hours, Ukrainian media reported late Friday.

Nine humanitarian aid corridors were opened Friday, state news agency Ukrinform reported, citing the Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Tymoshenko.

A total of "4,972 people, including 1,124 children, were evacuated from southeastern Mariupol province to the southeastern city of Zaporizhia," Tymoshenko said on Telegram.

Meanwhile, 4,173 were evacuated from the Sumy Region, he added.

The Russia-Ukraine war, which started on Feb. 24, has drawn international condemnation, led to financial restrictions on Moscow and spurred an exodus of global firms from Russia.

At least 816 civilians have been killed and 1,333 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, the UN said, while noting the figure is probably higher.

More than 3.27 million people have also fled to neighboring countries, said the UN refugee agency./ agencies