At least 102 civilians in Ukraine have been killed since Russia launched its invasion last Thursday, with a further 304 injured, but the real figure is feared to be “considerably higher”, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Monday.
Bachelet, addressing the opening session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, said:
Most of these civilians were killed by explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and air strikes. The real figures are, I fear, considerably higher.
Some 422,000 Ukrainians have fled their homeland, with many more displaced within the country, she told the Geneva forum which earlier agreed to hold an urgent debate on Ukraine later this week.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian negotiating team have arrived for talks with Russia on the border with Belarus, according to a tweet from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
Russia is interested in coming to an agreement that is in the interests of both sides at talks with Ukraine, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky claimed on Monday, as officials prepare to meet near the border.
Medinsky said talks were expected to begin at 10:00 am local time (9 am GMT).
Ukraine had agreed to talks with Russia “without preconditions”, the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday.
Zelenskiy did not sound hopeful of success, but said: “Let them try so that later not a single citizen of Ukraine has any doubt that I, as president, tried to stop the war.”
