Russian forces have lost about 2,800 servicemen and 80 tanks during their assault on Ukraine, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said on Friday.
That is more military casualties than the US lost over the course of the entire war in Afghanistan.
Malyar said on her Facebook page that the Russian troops also lost about 516 armored combat vehicles, 10 aircraft, and seven helicopters as of 3 p.m. local time (13 GMT).
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his long-anticipated invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Wednesday, events have shared on social media platforms in real-time.
With wailing air-raid sirens, families in Kharkiv sheltering in train stations, and lines forming at gas stations, the scene being painted is growing increasingly grim.
Despite pleas from the international community, Putin rebuffed condemnation and sanctions, warning other countries that attempts made by other states to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen.”
The Russian advance into Ukraine is slower than the Kremlin anticipated, as Russian forces advance toward the capital city of Kyiv, according to a senior U.S. military official.
The northeastern city of Kharkiv also remains contested, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. The Russians have not yet taken any population centers. It’s believed that the Russians have lost “a bit of momentum,” although the Russians have only deployed about one-third of the estimated 190,000 troops it had amassed at Ukraine’s borders.
U.S. officials still think the ultimate goal of Russia’s invasion is to remove Ukraine’s government and install its own. At this point, Ukrainian command and control is still believed to be intact.
In addition, the senior U.S. defense official said an amphibious assault by thousands of Russian marines is underway west of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine near the Russian border.
Amnesty International is accusing Russia of launching indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas in Ukraine, which it said could amount to war crimes.
“The Russian military has shown a blatant disregard for civilian lives by using ballistic missiles and other explosive weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said in a statement.
“Some of these attacks may be war crimes,” she added. “The Russian government, which falsely claims to use only precision-guided weapons, should take responsibility for these acts.”
“The Russian troops should immediately stop carrying out indiscriminate attacks in violation of the laws of war. The continuation of the use of ballistic missiles and other inaccurate explosive weapons causing civilian deaths and injuries is inexcusable,” said Callamard, who claimed Russian strikes have killed at least six civilians and injured at least 12 more.
Indiscriminate attacks violate international humanitarian law and can constitute war crimes.
The organization used satellite, photographic and video evidence to document three incidents in which it said the Russian military used inaccurate weapons that struck civilian areas.
Amnesty International’s weapons investigator used photos from the scene to determine that a 9M79 Tochka ballistic missile, which is extremely inaccurate, was used in the attack. Hospitals are protected from being targeted in war under international law.
The human rights organization said these instances provide “irrefutable evidence of violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.”
Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab analyzed digital evidence—including photos, videos and satellite imagery— of three such attacks carried out in the early hours of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. The attacks occurred in Vuhledar, Kharkiv and Uman.
In the deadliest strike documented by Amnesty International, at approximately 10:30 am local time, a ballistic missile struck near a hospital building in Vuhledar, in Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, killing four civilians and wounding ten more.
Donetsk is a breakaway region in eastern Ukraine, and Russia recently stoked tensions by recognizing it as independent.
According to a local source who spoke to Amnesty International researchers, two women and two men were killed, and six healthcare workers were among the injured. Analyzing photos of the weapon scrap linked to the incident, Amnesty International’s weapons investigator determined that a 9M79 Tochka ballistic missile was used in the attack.
These weapons are extremely inaccurate, regularly missing their targets by half a kilometre or more and should never be used in populated areas.
Another of the attacks was carried out at approximately 8 am local time, in the Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine.
The likely target was the nearby Chuhuiv Air Base, but instead Russian weapon struck a residential block, causing extensive fire damage and apparently killing at least one civilian man and injuring at least two civilian women. A single large crater in the ground between apartment buildings indicates the weapon was most likely a single large missile or rocket.
In another attack occurring at 7 am on February 24 in Uman, Cherkasy region, a civilian man appears to have been killed by a strike that also damaged a nearby restaurant.
Amnesty International has called for the U.N. General Assembly to denounce these attacks.
Meanwhile, NATO leaders met virtually to call on Russia “to stop this senseless war, immediately cease its assault, withdraw all its forces from Ukraine, and turn back to the path of dialogue and turn away from aggression,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
The Western military alliance has activated the NATO Response Force, marking the first time the potentially 40,000-person force may be deployed for “a deterrence and defense” role, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The 30 members of NATO all agreed to activate the force, which is under the command of Gen. Told Wolters, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.
The Council of Europe suspended Russia over its attacks against Ukraine on Friday.
The human rights organization said the suspension would have an “immediate effect” over Russia’s participation in the Committee of Ministers and parliamentary assembly made up of 47 countries, but the invading nation was not fully kicked out of the group and is still under obligation to follow its human rights conventions.