Ukrainian volunteers fold clothing at a centre in Mykolaiv set up to supply the army with homemade body armour, clothing and other supplies.

Displaced people disembark from a damaged bus upon their arrival at the Ukrainian Red Cross centre in the key shipbuilding centre on the Black Sea coast. Among them is 90-year-old Sofia Boiko, her eyes fearful from under a blue plaid shawl.

An icon is wrapped on a column at the volunteer centre by a banner scribbled with the words, “I love Ukraine,” and “I hate Putin” in the colours of Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow flag, along with these simple words of encouragement: “STAY STRONG.”

Faced with fierce Ukrainian resistance, Russian forces are stalled at Mykolaiv, an entry point to several other key Black Sea ports, which if seized, would completely cut off Ukraine’s access to its coast.

UNHCR says the war has triggered Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II, and the speed and breadth of refugees fleeing to countries including Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia — as well as Russia — is unprecedented in recent times. Poland alone has taken in 2.3 million refugees and Romania nearly 600,000.

The total exodus now stands at 3.87 million, according to the latest tally announced on Monday from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.