'Around 1,300' Ukrainian troops killed since Russia invasion, says Zelensky
Ukrainian soldiers unload weapons from the trunk of an old car, northeast of Kyiv on March 3, 2022. PHOTO/AFP
What you need to know:
- The Ukrainian president claimed that Russia had lost "around 12,000 men".
"Around 1,300" Ukrainian troops have been killed since Russia invaded its pro-Western neighbour, the country's President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday as Moscow's forces closed in on the capital Kyiv.
Zelensky made the disclosure at a media briefing, the first time Kyiv had given such a toll since the beginning of fighting. On March 2 Russia said it had lost nearly 500 soldiers, but has not updated the figure since.
The Ukrainian president claimed that Russia had lost "around 12,000 men".
It's "a ratio of one to ten, but that doesn't make me happy", he said.
The Russian army has comitted around 150,000 soldiers to the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian forces upped pressure on Kyiv Saturday, pummelling civilian areas in other Ukrainian cities, amid fresh efforts to get aid to the devastated port city of Mariupol.
Russian strikes destroyed the airport in the town of Vasylkiv on Saturday morning, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) south of Kyiv, while an oil depot was also hit and caught fire, the mayor said.
The northwest suburbs of the capital, including Irpin and Bucha, have already endured days of heavy bombardment while Russian armoured vehicles are advancing on the northeastern edge.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Friday called it a "city under siege", while Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Saturday Kyiv was reinforcing defences and stockpiling food and medicine.
A giant screen displays an image of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky speaking through a video link, addressing people taking part in a peace rally for Ukraine on March 12, 2022 in Florence, Tuscany, which takes place simultaneously in the main European cities to demand a ceasefire in Ukraine and an end to the war. PHOTO/AFP
The southern port city of Mariupol is facing what Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called "the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet", with more than 1,500 civilians dead in 12 days.
Ukraine president appeals to mothers of Russian soldiers
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday called on the mothers of Russian soldiers to prevent their sons being sent to war in Ukraine.
"I want to say this once again to Russian mothers, especially mothers of conscripts. Do not send your children to war in a foreign country," Zelensky said in a video address released on Telegram.
"Check where your son is. And if you have the slightest suspicion that your son could be sent to war against Ukraine, act immediately" to prevent him being killed or captured, he said.
"Ukraine never wanted this terrible war. And Ukraine does not want it. But it will defend itself as much as necessary," he added.
On Wednesday, Russia for the first time acknowledged the presence of conscripts in Ukraine and announced that a number of them had been taken prisoner.
Moscow had previously claimed that only professional soldiers were fighting there.
The announcement came as posts from mothers without news of their sons sent to Ukraine multiplied on social networks.
Kyiv last week invited mothers of Russian soldiers captured on its territory to come and pick their children up.
The Ukrainian defence ministry published phone numbers and an email through which they could obtain information about them.
Kyiv claims to have taken dozens of prisoners since the start of the Russian invasion.
During the conflict between Moscow and Chechen separatists in the 1990s and 2000s, many young Russian conscripts were sent to the front, and some were taken prisoner.
In a movement that fuelled anti-war protests in Russia at the time, women mobilised to try and bring their sons back alive or bring their bodies back -- even going to Chechnya themselves.
