GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. agencies on Tuesday launched an emergency appeal to respond to the soaring humanitarian needs following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, calling for $1.7 billion to help people who have fled the country and those still inside.

       "The crisis has turned very ugly very fast," Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, told journalists at a press conference in Geneva. He called for compassion to match the scale of the crisis.

       Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said at the same briefing that 150,000 more people had fled the country in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of refugees to around 677,000.

       (Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Andrew Heavens)