Ukraine assured that more than 21,000 Russian soldiers have died since the start of the invasion of the Kremlin

On Friday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces raised the number of Russian soldiers killed in combat to “about 21,200″ since the beginning of the war, triggered on February 24 by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Army noted that during the hostilities, 838 battle tanks, 397 artillery systems and 138 self-propelled and armored multiple rocket launchers were destroyed.

He also highlighted in a message on his Facebook account that Ukrainian forces have destroyed 69 air defense systems, 176 aircraft, 153 helicopters, 1,523 vehicles, eight boats and 172 drones.

On the other hand, he stressed that the Russian Army “continues its total aggression against Ukraine and launches missiles and bombardments against military and civilian infrastructure”, before stating that Russian forces “have intensified hostilities along the entire line of combat” in the Donetsk region.

“The Russian enemy is carrying out assault operations in the area of the Zarichne settlement and (...) is trying to advance in the Rubizhne area,” he said, while stressing that Russian troops “strengthen the grouping of forces in the direction of Zaporizhzhia”.

He also stated that “in the temporarily occupied territories, enemy units continue to block the movement of local residents, looting, (...) destroying critical infrastructure and blocking Ukraine's delivery of humanitarian aid”. “There have been cases of executions of civilians and volunteers,” he said.

SLOW EVACUATIONS

The evacuation of civilians is “very slow” in the besieged city of Mariupol and it has not been possible to set up three humanitarian corridors in the Kherson region of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereschuk.

“There is nothing to highlight in Mariupol. Everything is going very slow. On the Russian side, everything is very complicated, chaotic, slow and, of course, dishonest,” Vereschuk lamented in a statement on his Facebook account.

Thus, he stressed that the fact that “yesterday for the first time people went from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia directly (these are the four buses that left Mariupol yesterday) gives hope”.

In this regard, he apologized to the inhabitants of Mariupol who waited on Thursday to be evacuated. “The bombing started near the collection point, which forced the humanitarian corridor to be closed,” he explained.

in cities such as Mariupol and Kherson, the departure of buses with civilians was delayed due to the breach of agreements by Kremlin troops

In the Kherson region, three humanitarian corridors were not enabled either: “the occupants have not stopped the fire, so the corridors could not be opened,” Vereschuk said in the statement.

He also denounced that a “warlord” has taken as hostage the representative of Novovorontsovska, appointed chief of public transport at the state level, for the exchange of prisoners while he was holding talks with the Russian Army to organize humanitarian corridors.

“This was a mistake for which not only the specified defendant will be responsible, but also those who allow the capture of our civilians to exchange Russians for prisoners of war,” he said.

(With information from Europa Press)

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