‘Over 8,300 civilians killed in Ukraine war’

KIEV/GENEVA

More than 8,300 civilians have been killed so far in Russia’s war against Ukraine, investigators in Kiev said on Sunday.

Among them were 437 children, said Attorney General Andriy Kostin, according to a report by the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN on Sunday.

More than 11,000 people were injured in the war, which has lasted almost nine months.

According to Kostin, the actual number of victims is likely to be higher because Ukrainian authorities do not yet have access to some areas occupied by Russia.

In the liberated regions, Ukrainian troops continue to find bodies and evidence of suspected atrocities.

The Ukrainian authorities have so far registered more than 45,000 war crimes, with 216 people reported as suspected war criminals, including 17 Russian prisoners of war, it has been revealed. Twelve of the 60 accused were convicted.

Meanwhile the Ukrainian nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhya has been rocked by several powerful explosions, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Sunday.

IAEA experts on the ground had reported dozens of impacts on and near the site of Europe’s largest nuclear facility, the agency said in a statement.

The incidents on Saturday and Sunday “abruptly” ended a period of relative calm at the facility, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said according to the statement.

IAEA experts saw some of the explosions from their windows, the agency said.

The plant’s management reported damage to some buildings, systems and equipment. So far, however, the damage had not affected nuclear safety and nobody was injured.

“Whoever is behind this, it must stop immediately,” Grossi said in the IAEA statement. “As I have said many times before, you’re playing with fire!” The IAEA chief appealed once again to both sides to establish a safe zone around the facility where no attacks and fighting takes place. The nuclear plant has repeatedly come under fire in heavy fighting in recent months. Ukraine and Russia blame each other.

-Ranjith Perera-