NIKOPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already killed around 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers since it began almost six months ago, a general said, and Monday’s fighting showed no signs of the war easing.
Speaking at an event for veterans, Ukraine’s military chief, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said many of Ukraine’s children needed care because “their father went to the front and maybe is one of those nearly 9,000 heroes who died.”
In Nikopol, across the river from Ukraine’s main nuclear power plant, four people were injured by Russian shelling on Monday, an official said. The city on the Dnieper has suffered relentless blows since July 12, damaging 850 buildings and forcing about half of its 100,000 residents to flee.
“I hate Russians,” said 74-year-old Liudmyla Shyshkina, standing on the edge of her ruined fourth-floor apartment in Nikopol, which has no walls. She is still injured from the August 10 blast that killed her 81-year-old husband Anatoliy.
“World War II didn’t take my father away, but the Russian war did,” noted Pavlo Shyshkin, his son.
The UN says 5,587 civilians were killed and 7,890 injured in the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, although the estimate is likely an understatement. The UN children’s organization said Monday that at least 972 Ukrainian children have been killed or injured since Russia invaded. UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said these are UN verified numbers but “we believe the number is much higher”.
US President Joe Biden and leaders of Britain, France and Germany on Sunday asked Russia to end military operations near the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant – Europe’s largest – but Nikopol came under three rocket and mortar fire overnight. According to authorities, houses, a kindergarten, a bus stop and shops were hit.
There are widespread fears that continued shelling and fighting in the region could lead to a nuclear catastrophe. Russia has requested an urgent UN Security Council meeting on Tuesday to discuss the situation.
Vladimir Rogov, an official with the Russian-installed administration of the occupied Zaporizhia region, said on Monday that because of the shelling, staff at the nuclear power plant had been cut, leaving only emergency staff to keep operations running.
Monday’s announcement of the extent of the Ukrainian military’s deaths contrasts with estimates by the Russian military, which last gave an update on March 25 when it said 1,351 Russian soldiers were killed in the first month of fighting. US military officials estimated two weeks ago that Russia has lost between 70,000 and 80,000 troops, both killed and wounded in combat.
On Monday, however, Moscow turned its attention to a specific civilian death.
Russia blamed Ukrainian intelligence agencies for the weekend’s car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow that killed the daughter of a far-right Russian nationalist who passionately supports the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, said Monday the murder was “prepared and carried out by the Ukrainian special services.” The bombing that killed 29-year-old TV commentator Darya Dugina, whose father, political theorist Alexander Dugin, is often referred to as “Putin’s brain”, was carried out by a Ukrainian national who left Russia for Estonia shortly afterwards.
Ukrainian officials have vehemently denied any involvement in the car bombing. Estonian officials say Russia has not asked them to search for the suspected bomber or spoken to them about the bombing.
At the front, the Ukrainian military said it was staging a strike on a key bridge over the Dnieper in the Russian-occupied Kherson region. Local officials deployed in Russia said two people were killed and 16 others injured in Monday’s strike.
Photos on social media showed thick plumes of smoke billowing over the Antonivsky Bridge, a key supply route for the Russian military in Kherson.
Concern has spread in the Russian-occupied Crimea following a spate of fires and explosions at Russian facilities over the past two weeks. The Russian-backed Sevastopol governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev, ordered signs showing the locations of bomb shelters to be put up in the city, which had long seemed untouchable.
Razvozhaev told Telegram that the city is well protected, but “it’s better to know where the shelters are”.
Sevastopol, the Crimean port that is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, has seen a series of drone strikes. A drone exploded at Fleet headquarters on July 31, and another was shot down over it last week. Authorities said air defense systems also shot down other drones.
On Monday evening, residents of Sevastopol reported hearing loud explosions on social media. Razvozhaev said that the air defense system “shot down an object … at high altitude, that’s why the noise was heard in different parts of the cities.”
“Preliminary (conclusion) is that it is again a drone,” he wrote on Telegram.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made no direct mention of the war during a speech marking National Flag Day Monday, but repeated some of the justifications given for the invasion.
“We are determined to pursue only those policies on the international stage that correspond to the fundamental interests of the motherland,” Putin said. He claims Russia sent troops to Ukraine to protect its people from Western encroachment.
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