Ukraine crisis: More than 1,000 people killed in past month, says United Nations
The statement came as Russia’s attack on Ukraine completed one month on Thursday.
At least 1,035 people have been killed and 1,650 have sustained injuries in the past month of war in Ukraine, the United Nations’ human rights office said on Thursday, according to Reuters.
The human rights office added that 90 children were among those who died. It also said that the true number of deaths could be considerably higher, and noted that there were delays in reporting from areas with intense hostilities, such as the city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund said that about 4.3 million children have been uprooted, including over 1.8 million who have sought refuge abroad, Reuters reported. The reported number of children who have been uprooted accounts for over half of Ukraine’s population below 18 years of age (estimated at 7.5 million).
In Mariupol, the city council has called for assistance, and said that residents are beginning to die of starvation, The Kyiv Independent reported. The port city has been besieged by Russian troops and multiple attempts to set up humanitarian corridors have failed, with both Ukraine and Russia blaming each other for the failure.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine completed one month on Thursday. Moscow claims that it launched the “military operation” to “de-militarise and de-Nazify Ukraine”.
Ukraine’s quest for the membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was also said to be one of the reasons why Russia invaded it. On March 8, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he is no longer pressing for NATO membership for his country.
Biden to visit Poland
United States President Joe Biden will on Friday visit the Polish town of Rzeszow, which is located about 80 km from the country’s border with Ukraine, AFP reported.
Poland’s President Andrzej Duda will receive him in the town, the White House said. The United States president will be briefed on how Poland is dealing with millions of people from Ukraine who have sought refuge there in the wake of Russia’s attack.
Biden is also slated to meet members of the United States’ 82nd Airborne Division in Poland.
In the past few weeks, the United States government has announced several sanctions on Russia on account of its ongoing attack on Ukraine.
On March 8, Biden announced that the country will ban all imports of all oil and gas from Russia. He added that his country “will not be a part of subsidising [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war”.
On March 1, however, he made it clear that the United States’ troops will not engage in a conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine.