UN slams civilian toll as Russia's war in Ukraine reaches day 500
The United Nations condemned the civilian cost inflicted by Russia's war in Ukraine as the fighting passed the 500-day mark with no end to the conflict in sight.
More than 9,000 civilians, including 500 children, have been killed since Russia's February 24, 2022 invasion, the UN's Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said in a statement on Friday, though UN representatives have previously said the real count is likely to be much higher.
"Today we mark another grim milestone in the war that continues to exact a horrific toll on Ukraine's civilians," Noel Calhoun, the deputy head of HRMMU, said in the statement marking the 500th day since the invasion.
While this year the casualty numbers have been lower on average than in 2022, the figure began to climb again in May and June, the monitors noted.
On June 27, 13 civilians, including four children, were killed in a missile strike on Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.
And far from the front line in the western city of Lviv, rescuers found a 10th body in the rubble of buildings on Friday.
At least 37 people were wounded during an early Thursday strike that Mayor Andriy Sadovyi called the biggest attack on civilian infrastructure in his city since the start of Russia's invasion of the country.
More than 50 apartments had been "ruined" and a dormitory at Lviv Polytechnic University had been damaged, he wrote on Telegram.
UNESCO said that attack was also the first to take place in an area protected by the World Heritage Convention and had damaged a historic building.
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