A million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion of the country, marking the fasted exodus of refugees in the century, the U.N. refugee agency said Wednesday.

Shabia Mantoo, the spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said "at this rate,” it could become "the biggest refugee crisis this century.”

Russia and Ukraine said Wednesday that they were prepared to hold talks for the second time, expected to take place Thursday in Belarus. There appears to be little common ground between the two sides.

Also Wednesday, the U.N. General Assembly condemned the invasion and called on Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

Russia claimed to have taken control of its first major Ukrainian city, Kherson. Kherson Mayor Igor Kolykhaev said Russian soldiers were in the city and had come to the city administration building. He said he asked them not to shoot civilians and to allow crews to gather bodies from the streets.

"We don’t have any Ukrainian forces in the city, only civilians and people here who want to LIVE,” he said in a statement posted on Facebook.

In a video address to the nation early Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to keep up the resistance but didn’t comment on whether the Russians have seized any cities, including Kherson.

"They will have no peace here," Zelenskyy said. "They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment.”

Meanwhile, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi also tweeted: "In just seven days we have witnessed the exodus of one million refugees from Ukraine to neighboring countries.”

The tally amounts to more than 2% of Ukraine’s population, though some of those fleeing Ukraine are citizens of other countries.

European countries came under criticism for welcoming Ukrainian refugees with open arms, while hesitating to accept refugees from other races and backgrounds.

The U.N. agency has predicted that up to 4 million people could eventually leave Ukraine but cautioned that even that projection could be revised upward. The World Bank counted Ukraine's population at 44 million at the end of 2020.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said more than 2,000 civilians have died, though it was impossible to verify the claim. The U.N. human rights office said it had recorded the deaths of 136 civilians, including 13 children, in Ukraine since the Feb. 24 start of the invasion.

The EU Commission said Wednesday that it will give temporary residence permits to refugees fleeing the violence and allow them to study and work in the 27-nation bloc. The move would need the approval of member states, which have already expressed broad support.

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