A total of 352 civilians, including 14 children, have been killed and 1,684 people, including 116 children, wounded since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Health Ministry announced Sunday.
One of the relief agencies operating within the United Nations said in a report that at least 64 civilians have been killed and more than 160,000 are on the move after Russian troops entered Ukraine.
"As of 5:00 p.m. on Feb. 26, (U.N. human rights office) OHCHR reports at least 240 civilian casualties, including at least 64 dead," the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in the status report Saturday.
It added the actual figures were likely to be "considerably higher."
Damage to civilian infrastructure has left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity or water. Hundreds of homes had been damaged or destroyed, while bridges and roads hit by shelling had left some communities cut off from markets, it said.
It cited the U.N. refugee agency as saying more than 160,000 people had been internally displaced and more than 116,000 forced to flee into neighboring countries.
"U.N. agencies and humanitarian partners have been forced to suspend operations due to the deteriorating security situation," OCHA said.
"The U.N. and its partners maintain their presence across the country and remain committed to staying on the ground and responding to growing humanitarian needs and protection risks once the situation permits," it added.
"The current situation is exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation in the Donbass region and generating new multisectoral needs across the country," OCHA said.
The report also underlined that even before the current deterioration in the situation, the prolonged conflict in Ukraine had led to more than 3,000 deaths and more than 7,000 injured, while damaging or destroying approximately 55,000 homes. Around 2.9 million people already required humanitarian assistance, a figure that is expected to rise exponentially as a result of the intensification of armed conflict.
The Ukrainian government, on the other hand, announced Saturday at least 198 civilians have been killed and 1,115 people injured nationwide, including 33 children, after three days of attacks by Russian ground and air forces. Three children were among the dead, according to Health Minister Viktor Liashko.
Russia's Defense Ministry also confirmed reports that its military forces suffered casualties. At a daily briefing in Moscow, ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said, "Russian servicemen showed courage and heroism while performing combat duties" but admitted that there were dead and wounded, and some of them were captured.
Russian troops entered Ukraine, with intense fighting ongoing across major cities, including the capital Kyiv, Kharkiv, Kherson and Odessa, among others, as well as the conflict-stricken Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. The government of Ukraine has declared a state of emergency and martial law.
