President Zelenskiy: Up to 3,000 Ukrainian troops killed in war with Russia so far
The Ukrainian president has said some 2,500 to 3,000 troops have been killed in the conflict with Russia, after seven weeks of war.
There was no count of civilian casualties, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy told US broadcaster CNN. Some 10,000 soldiers had been injured.
Zelenskiy said between 19,000 to 20,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the war, in contrast to figures from Moscow last month that stated some 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed and 3,825 wounded.
News agencies reporting on the conflict on the ground have been unable to verify either side’s numbers.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said nine humanitarian corridors have been agreed so civilians can be evacuated via private cars on Saturday to evacuate civilians.
In a statement, Vereshchuk said five of the nine evacuation corridors were from Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which has been subject to heavy shelling.
Reuters reported explosions in Kyiv and the western city of Lviv on Saturday morning, with no immediate information of casualties or damage.
One person was killed and several wounded in attacks in Kyiv, Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Saturday afternoon.
Russia said it had used cruise missiles to the Vizar factory on the edge of Kyiv, which it said made and repaired missiles, including anti-ship missiles, Reuters reported.
On Friday, the Ukrainian government declared its missiles had hit Russia’s flagship vessel, Moskva, causing the warship to sink.
However, Russia denied this and said the vessel sank while being towed in stormy seas after a fire caused by an explosion of ammunition.