"The kids here need more attention. We need staff, staff, staff." This is the plea from Mykhailo Zaidel, the director of an Ukrainian orphanage which is struggling to cope after the war sent it an influx of children. The Magala orphanage was caring for 10 children with learning disabilities before Russia invaded on 24 February. It is around 1,000 miles from the frontline but the war has cast a long shadow.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Russia to stop forced deportations and "filtration" operations involving Ukrainians. Russia had detained and forcibly moved to Russia some 900,000 to 1.6 million people, many of them children, he said.

More than a quarter of Ukrainians – 12 million – have been forced to leave their homes. While about seven million are internally displaced, five million have sought asylum in neighbouring European countries, the UNHCR says. And throughout the war, observers have been noting a double standard in the treatment of refugees. While those from other conflict-hit nations are shunned by Western countries, Ukrainians fleeing war have been welcomed with open arms.

Russian forces have reportedly captured the teenaged son of an official in Zaporizhzhia, while others have been separated from their families.

The war in Ukraine has forced millions to flee the country, but some of the most vulnerable have been left behind. NBC’s Richard Engel reports for TODAY on the Vilshanka Orphan House. Warning: some of the images in this report may be distressing.

On February 24, in the early hours of a cold, dark morning in Lviv, two phones in one apartment rang nearly simultaneously. The phones belonged to two women, Maryna and Nataliia, professional colleagues of a sort and temporary roommates; they were also newfound friends, both of them pregnant and near the beginning of their third trimesters.

The conflict in Ukraine and subsequent refugee crisis has resulted in children being separated from their families and moved across borders. Some have been orphaned or their orphanages have been destroyed.

As of the morning of June 8, 2022, more than 741 children were injured in Ukraine as a result of the full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation: according to official information of juvenile prosecutors, 263 children were killed, more than 478 injured, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) reports.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, hundreds of children have been killed, hundreds more have been injured, and millions have fled.

More than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, mostly women and children, have fled to Bulgaria since the start of the war. The government placed around 60,000 refugees at beach-front resorts during the low season at places such as the Melia Sunny Beach hotel. Its manager, Hristo Karailiev, said it had housed around 2,500 Ukrainians at one point.