UKRAINE-CRISIS/KYIV
UN monitoring mission announced on Saturday that least 351 civilians have been killed in Ukraine, as Russia continued its bombing campaign.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said most of the casualties had occurred due to shelling from rocket launchers and heavy artillery.
The UN agency said the “real figures are considerably higher” as several reports are still to be corroborated including in Volnovakha where Russia declared it had opened an evacuation corridor.
Although Russia said it had stopped firing near two Ukrainian cities on Saturday however Ukraine’s deputy PM Iryna Vereshchunk said Putin’s forces ahd started shelling Volnovakha in the morning with heavy artillery.
“Russia violated the agreement in which the Red Cross was an intermediary,” Vereshchunk said.
Reports had claimed earlier that at least 47 people were killed after Russian airstrikes in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. There have been reports of residential areas being hit as capital Kyiv has come under intense bombing in the past few days.
Amid the fighting, The United Nations’ World Food Programme warned that Ukraine may witness a food crisis due to disruption in production and exports as reports said at least 1.3 million people had fled to neighbouring states.