Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already killed about 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers since it began nearly six months ago, a general said, in a rare admission of wartime casualty numbers. Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said on Monday that many Ukrainian children needed care “because their fathers have gone to the front and are perhaps among the almost 9,000 heroes who have been killed.” Monday’s announcement of the range of Ukrainian military casualties contradicts estimates from the Russian military, which last updated on March 25 when it said 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed in the first month of fighting. US military officials estimated two weeks ago that Russia has lost between 70,000 and 80,000 soldiers killed and wounded in the fighting. It is impossible for Al Jazeera to independently confirm these battlefield figures. The United Nations says 5,587 civilians have been killed and 7,890 injured during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, though the estimate is likely extremely conservative. The UN children’s agency said on Monday that at least 972 children from Ukraine have been killed or injured by Russia’s invasion. UNICEF executive director Kathryn Russell said these were figures that had been verified by the UN, but “we believe the number is much higher”. “I feel hatred for the Russians,” said Liudmyla Shyshkina, 74, standing at the edge of her damaged, wallless fourth-floor apartment in the city of Nikopol. She is still traumatized by the August 10 blast that killed her 81-year-old husband, Anatoly. “The Second World War did not take my father, but the Russian war,” noted Pavlo Shyshkin, his son. Ukraine celebrates its independence day on Wednesday, as well as six months since the invasion of Russian troops.
