Ukraine: 9,000 of its troops killed since Russia began war
Nikopol (Ukraine): Russia's invasion of Ukraine has already killed some 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers since it began nearly six months ago, a general said, and the fighting on Monday showed no signs that the war is abating.
At a veteran's event, Ukraine's military chief, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said many of Ukraine's children need to be taken care of because their father went to the front line and, perhaps, is one of those almost 9,000 heroes who died.
In Nikopol, across the river from Ukraine's main nuclear power plant, Russian shelling wounded four people Monday, an official said.
The city on the Dnieper River has faced relentless pounding since July 12 that has damaged 850 buildings and sent about half its population of 100,000 fleeing.
I feel hate towards Russians, said 74-year-old Liudmyla Shyshkina, standing on the edge of her destroyed fourth-floor apartment in Nikopol that no longer has walls. She is still injured from the August 10 blast that killed her 81-year-old husband, Anatoliy.
The Second World War didn't take away my father, but the Russian war did, noted Pavlo Shyshkin, his son.
The UN says 5,587 civilians have been killed and 7,890 wounded in the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24, although the estimate is likely an undercount.
The UN children's agency said on 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 figures but we believe the number to be much higher .
US President Joe Biden and the leaders of Britain, France and Germany pleaded on Sunday for Russia to end military operations so close to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant Europe's largest but Nikopol came under fire three times overnight from rockets and mortar shells.
Houses, a kindergarten, a bus station and stores were hit, authorities said.
There are widespread fears that continued shelling and fighting in the area could lead to a nuclear catastrophe.
Russia has asked for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on Tuesday to discuss the situation a move the audacity of which Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decried in his evening video address.
The total number of different Russian cruise missiles that Russia used against us is approaching 3,500. It is simply impossible to count the strikes of Russian artillery; there are so many of them, and they are so intense," Zelensky said on Monday.
Western nations had already scheduled a council meeting on Wednesday -- the six-month anniversary of the Russian invasion -- on its impact on Ukraine.
Vladimir Rogov, an official with the Russia-installed administration of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region, claimed that because of shelling from Ukraine, staffing at the nuclear plant had been
cut sharply.
Ukrainians say Russia is storing weapons at the plant and has blocked off areas to Ukrainian nuclear
workers.
