3,500 Russian soldiers killed so far: Ukraine claims

The Ukrainian military today has claimed more than 3,500 Russian soldiers have been killed and almost 200 taken as prisoners amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine, reports BBC.  

According to a post on its Facebook page, the Ukrainian military also claimed the invasion turned out as Russia’s loss.

They added that “Russia has also lost 14 aircraft, 8 helicopters, and 102 tanks” so far. However, the international media BBC is unable to independently verify any of these claims.

Russia has so far not acknowledged any casualties.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces fought off Russian troops in the streets of the capital Kyiv on Saturday as President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of targeting civilians and called for more international sanctions.

Pedestrians ran for safety as small arms fire and explosions erupted in the Obolensky district in Kyiv's north. Larger blasts could be heard in the city center, where residents endured a first tense night under curfew and the sounds of bombing, news agency AFP reported.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to stay in Kyiv as his troops battled Russian invaders in the biggest attack on a European state since World War II. 

“(The) enemy has marked me down as the number one target,” Zelensky warned in a video message. “My family is the number two target. I will stay in the capital. My family is also in Ukraine,” he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow wants to “free Ukraine from oppression”. Russian President Vladimir Putin took the decision to conduct a special military operation to “demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine,” Lavrov said at a press conference in Moscow.

Russian forces said they had taken control of a vital canal to supply water to Moscow-annexed Crimea, which has been suffering from shortages for the past eight years. Crimea received most of its water from Ukraine’s Dnieper River via the North Crimean Canal until 2014, when Moscow annexed the peninsula and Kyiv authorities blocked the waterway.