The United Nations World Food Program is "deeply concerned" that people in embattled parts of Ukraine, especially the besieged southern city of Mariupol, are struggling to find food. 

The systems that feed millions of people were "falling apart," it said in a tweet Friday.     

In a second tweet, it added that humanitarian access was "critical."

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko on Friday referred to Russian forces as "orcs." Ukrainian resistance fighters and protesters are using the term, too.

The nickname appears to be a reference to the brutish monsters of the same name from J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" fantasy series. In the books (and their film adaptations), the Dark Lord Sauron dispatches the orcs to do his bidding on the battlefield.

In the decades since Tolkien's novels were published, orcs have taken root in the popular consciousness — but the author's conception of the malevolent goblins has also drawn accusations of racism.

Some civilians have emerged from the rubble of the Mariupol theater, where hundreds were seeking safety in its bomb shelter when it was leveled by a Russian attack Wednesday. 

“I emphasized that 130 people have already been evacuated from the drama theater in Mariupol destroyed by the occupiers, but 1,300 people are still in the basements,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman, Liudmyla Denisova, said in a televised address, according to a translation by NBC News. The shelter housed mostly women and children.

Around 173,500 people have been evacuated via the humanitarian corridors since the beginning of the invasion, she added.

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Friday, shelling residential buildings and a school in an assault that left one person dead and another 19 injured, including four children, according to the mayor.

"The enemy continues to attack the capital. In the morning, a residential area in the Podil district was shelled by orcs," Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said in a post on Telegram, using a Ukrainian nickname for Russian troops.

The shelling hit at least six homes, a kindergarten and a school, Klitschko said.

NBC News surveyed the aftermath, encountering dazed civilians whose morning routines were violently interrupted by Russia's latest attack. In one apartment, a sink was covered in blood; more stains by the door were probably left by a person rushing out of the unit.

"I have no home now, and nowhere to live," a woman named Ala said. "Where are we to go?"

Richard Engel reported from Kyiv and Daniel Arkin reported from New York.

More than 3 million refugees have fled Ukraine with around 13 million affected in the hardest hit areas of the country, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday.

“The pace and magnitude of the internal displacement and refugee exodus from Ukraine, as well as resulting humanitarian needs, will only increase if the situation deteriorates,” UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh said in a press briefing in Geneva.

The agency appealed to neighboring countries to keep their borders open for those fleeing the war. In the cities of Mariupol and Sumy, residents are facing “critical and potentially fatal shortages of food, water and medicines,” he said.

“Targeted attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure and lack of safe passage” pose serious threats to the lives of thousands of civilians, he said. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians. 

As many as 109 children have died and more than 130 injured since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office said Friday.

The capital city of Kyiv recorded the deaths of 55 children while the casualties in the areas of Kharkiv, Donetsk, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv, Zhytomyr, Sumy and Kherson continue to grow, it said.

“In addition, bombings and shelling by Russian troops damaged more than 439 educational institutions, 63 of which were completely destroyed,” it said. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians.

NBC News has not independently verified those numbers. 

Italy's culture minister said the country is willing to rebuild the theater in Mariupol after it was destroyed by the Russian military. Hundreds of residents were seeking refuge in the theater complex when it was hit Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — Top Democrats are drawing parallels between the existential fight for democracy in Ukraine and the struggle to protect American democracy, citing the war to reaffirm their desire for new guardrails around institutions like free and fair elections.

“I’m hoping that seeing the Ukrainians come under attack because they’re a democracy and defend their country so bravely because they believe in democracy increases faith in ours here at home,” Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, said in an interview. “I feel very strongly that we’ve had, really, an unprecedented period of questioning our own small-d democratic values and, culminating in January 6, an attempt to overthrow a presidential election here.

“The best thing we can do for the world is to present an example of a functioning democracy at a time when, around the world, autocracies are on the rise and are literally attacking democracies like in Ukraine,” Allred said, suggesting that the death and destruction inflicted by Russian leader Vladimir Putin will give pause to Americans who may want to "put our faith in a strongman."

Read the full story here.

Three current and former members of the Tennessee National Guard falsely identified in a Russian media report as mercenaries who were killed in Ukraine are in fact alive and well, the Tennessee National Guard has said.

The report published in Russia’s Pravda newspaper had identified the Americans by name and gave military ranks for each of them, citing information from pro-Russian militia in Ukraine’s Donetsk.

However, the Tennessee Guard said in a statement: “They are accounted for, safe and not, as the article headline erroneously states, U.S. mercenaries killed in Donetsk People’s Republic.”

Read the full story here.