Ukraine shares info on ‘losses’ of Russian forces; UN says 10mn become refugees

Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs on Sunday said 14,700 armed personnel belonging to Russia were killed in the weeks-long war.

Sharing a post on Twitter with details of “losses of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine, March 20,” the ministry said besides the death of 14,700 personnel, Moscow has lost 1,487 armoured vehicles of different types, 96 aircraft, 230 artillery pieces, 947 vehicles and so on.

In a video address, an advisor to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the front lines between Ukrainian and Russian forces are “practically frozen” as the latter do not have enough combat strength to advance further. “(Over the past day) there were practically no rocket strikes on (Ukrainian) cities,” said presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych.

Russia has, however, turned more destructive with its artillery with each passing day having used the “Kinzhal” hypersonic missile against Ukrainian cities.

“Kinzhal & Bastion systems are used against peaceful cities,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Twitter.

It was the first official response from Ukraine to Russia’s claims that it has fired the powerful missiles twice in three days — the latest, to destroy a fuel depot in the Mykolaiv region. Authorities there issued an air-raid warning early Sunday for about an hour.

Hours ago, Russian forces bombed a Mariupol art school in which 400 residents had taken shelter, but the number of casualties was not yet known. Local authorities said thousands of residents from the besieged city had been taken by force across the border. Over the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents were deported onto the Russian territory,” the city council said in a statement on its Telegram channel late on Saturday.

Zelenskyy said Russia’s siege of the port city of Mariupol was “a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come”.

Russia’s war against Ukraine was in its fourth week. The United Nations said ten million people — more than a quarter of the population — have now fled their homes in Ukraine due to Russia’s “devastating” war.

“Among the responsibilities of those who wage war, everywhere in the world, is the suffering inflicted on civilians who are forced to flee their homes,” said UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi.

“The war in Ukraine is so devastating that 10 million have fled either displaced inside the country, or as refugees abroad,” he added.