The week in pictures

March 6 — A man and a child escape from the town of Irpin  after heavy shelling on the only escape route used by locals, while Russian troops advance towards the capital of Kyiv, Ukraine.  

March 6 —  A Ukrainian serviceman helps a woman during the evacuation of civilians from Irpin. Reuters reports witnesses as saying that people fleeing the city, which is 25km northwest of Kyiv, were caught in shelling by Russian forces, though it could not confirm reports that at least three people were killed.

March 6 — A man helps an elderly woman to run for cover after heavy shelling on the only escape route used by locals, while Russian troops advance towards the capital, in Irpin, near Kyiv.

March 7 —  Residents of Irpin flee heavy fighting via a destroyed bridge as Russian forces entered the city in Ukraine.

March 7 — Firemen try to extinguish a blaze at the Havryshivka Vinnytsia International Airport in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, after  missile strikes by Russian forces.

March 7 — Local residents cross a destroyed bridge as they evacuate from their town in Irpin, near Kyiv, Ukraine.

March 7 — Destroyed Russian tanks on a road near the city of Sumy in Ukraine during Russia’s invasion. A short lull in fighting allowed some residents to flee on Tuesday, after Russian airstrikes killed 21 people, including two children, the night before, Ukrainian authorities said.

March 7 — Children look on from a window as they arrive in a Ukrainian train from Lviv that was transporting hundreds of people fleeing from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the station in Przemysl, Poland.

March 7 — People who had just arrived from war-torn Ukraine warm themselves and find shelter on a freezing day at the Medyka border crossing in Medyka, Poland.

March 8 — Myroslava Dudar prays during a memorial service on Tuesday in Lviv for her son, Viktor Dudar, and Ivan Koverznev. The two Ukrainian servicemen were killed on March 2, during Russia’s invasion. Meanwhile Ukraine’s deputy prime minister says 5,000 civilians were evacuated from Sumy region on Tuesday but the evacuation of Mariupol failed again.

March 8 — Police patrol Alexandra and conducted searches after Operation Dudula members clashed with foreign street vendors. At least 10 people were injured.  

March 9 — Cars burn in front of a hospital building destroyed  in an air strike in Mariupol by Russian forces invading Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as “ultimate evidence that genocide of Ukrainians is happening”. The city’s deputy mayor, Sergiy Orlov, said 1,160 people had been killed so far. 

March 9 — The wreckage of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which was crushed by Antarctic ice and sank about 3,000m to the ocean floor more than a century ago, has been found.  The three-masted ship was lost in November 1915. The expedition — led by British polar explorer John Shears — operated from the SA ice-breaking ship Agulhas II.

March 9 — Election commission officials count ballots for the presidential election in Seoul, South Korea. Conservative political novice Yoon Suk Yeol won after one of the country’s most closely fought polls.

March 9 — Yan Zhuo of China and teammates celebrate after their Beijing 2022 Paralympic wheelchair curling contest against Norway at the National Aquatics Centre in Beijing, China.

March 10 —  Demonstrators burn a US flag during a protest outside Argentina’s National Congress in Buenos Aires on Thursday as members of the parliament debate the government’s agreement with the IMF. Bloomberg reports that the government aims to have the deal finalised by March 22, when it will need to make payments to the IMF worth $2.8bn.

March 10 — A ship on the Hudson River passes the New York City skyline of midtown Manhattan in heavy fog in New York, the US. 

March 10 — A Palestinian woman waits to receive food supplies at an aid distribution centre run by the UN Relief and Works Agency at Beach refugee camp in Gaza City.