The United Nations Human Rights Agency (OHCHR) has claimed that more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine ever since Russia invaded on February 24, adding that the real toll was likely much higher.
HCHR, which has dozens of human rights monitors in the country, said in its weekly update that 5,024 people have been killed and 6,520 injured.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said their troops had attacked a Russian ammunition depot in southern Ukraine overnight, resulting in a massive explosion that was captured on social media.
The Ukrainian army’s southern command said a missile strike targeted the depot in Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka, about 55 km east of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, also occupied by Russian forces.
The precision of the attack suggested that Ukrainian forces used US-supplied multi-launch high mobility artillery missile systems (HIMARS) to hit the area.
Ukraine has hinted in recent days that it could launch a counter-offensive to reclaim territory in the south of the country as Russia devotes resources to conquer the entire eastern Donbas region.
Russia’s Tass news agency reported differently about the explosion in Nova Kakhovka, saying that a mineral fertilizer storage facility exploded and a market, hospital and homes were damaged by the strike. Some ingredients in fertilizer can be used for ammunition.
A satellite photo taken yesterday and analyzed by The Associated Press showed significant damage. A huge crater stood exactly where a large warehouse-like structure in the city once stood,
Ukraine now has eight HIMAR systems, a truck-mounted high-accuracy rocket launcher, and Washington has promised to send four more.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian shelling over the past 24 hours has killed at least 16 civilians and injured another 48, Ukraine’s presidential office said yesterday.
Cities and towns in five southeastern regions came under Russian fire, the agency said.
Nine civilians were killed and two injured in Donetsk province, which makes up half of the Donbas.
Russian missile strikes targeted the cities of Sloviansk and Toretsk, where a kindergarten was hit, the presidential office said.
The British military said Russia continued to make “small, incremental gains” in Donetsk.
The death toll from a Russian rocket attack that hit an apartment building in Donetsk on Saturday has risen to 38, Ukrainian officials said yesterday.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and the surrounding region, Russian strikes have hit residential buildings, killing four civilians and injuring nine, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian authorities also said Russian fire hit the southern city of Mykolaiv yesterday morning, hitting residential buildings and two medical facilities. Twelve people were said to have been injured.
Meanwhile, air raid sirens sounded yesterday in the western city of Lviv — the first daytime sirens there in more than a week — and in other parts of Ukraine as Russian forces continued to make progress.
In eastern Luhansk, fighting continues near villages on the administrative border with neighboring Donetsk, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said. “The Russian army burns everything in its path. The artillery fire does not stop and sometimes lasts for four to six hours,” Haidai said.
In other developments, the Kremlin said the Russian president Vladimir Putin was to visit Iran next week.
Putin will travel to Tehran next Tuesday to attend a trilateral meeting with the leaders of Iran and Turkey, a format for talks on Syria.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Russia was looking for hundreds of surveillance drones from Iran, including weapons-equipped ones, for use in Ukraine.
Russian and Turkish military representatives plan to meet in Istanbul today to discuss the transportation of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea.