The number of Ukrainian civilians killed since the start of the Russian invasion is "significantly higher" than the 6,884 known so far, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (Ohchr) said.
The Guardian reports it.
The tally of the number of civilian victims in Ukraine according to the UN indicates that the confirmed dead between February 24 and December 26 are 6,884, of which 429 are children.
But the agency points out that the actual figure is likely to be "considerably higher, as information from areas where there has been intense hostilities is delayed and many reports are still awaiting confirmation."
Civilians flee Kherson, 'bombs all the time, it's scary'
- Hundreds of civilians terrorized by Russian bombing are fleeing the southern city of Kherson, queues of cars form at checkpoints leaving the metropolitan area.
The BBC writes it by publishing photos of the cars lined up on December 25, just on Christmas day 400 residents fled their city.
"Before, the Russians were bombing us seven to 10 times a day, now it's 70 to 80 times, all day long. It's too scary. I love Ukraine and my dear city. But we have to go," said a woman who left in family train.
The evacuation is facilitated by the Ukrainian government.
The Russian army left Kherson on November 11th.
Volodymyr Zelensky seeks Italy's side on anti-aircraft systems vital to defending Ukraine from Russian attacks
.
After a phone call with Giorgia Meloni, the Ukrainian leader reported that the prime minister had "informed" him that in Rome "the issue of supplying air defense systems to protect the Ukrainian skies is being evaluated".
From Palazzo Chigi, Meloni renewed the government's "full support" for Ukraine
in the political, economic, humanitarian and even military fields.
And
confirming her intention to go to Kiev with the arrival of the new year, the prime minister invited Zelensky to come and visit Rome
, after the recent trip to Washington.
The Ukrainian president thanked Italy "for its solidarity and support" and praised "the allocation by the Italian government of an additional 10 million euros in aid".
To then discuss with Meloni the peace plan promoted by Kiev, with which Zelensky aims to organize a summit at the UN in February, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the war.
From Italy there is "the utmost commitment to every useful action to arrive at a just peace for the Ukrainian nation", underlined from Palazzo Chigi.
But peace is still a utopia, while threats from Moscow are growing
, with Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov who launched yet another ultimatum to Kiev: "Accept our proposals in a friendly way, or otherwise the Russian army will take care of the matter".
According to the head of Russian diplomacy, "the enemy is well aware of our proposals on the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the Kiev regime, and the elimination of threats to Russia's security which includes our new territories" of Donetsk, Lugansk , Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
All obviously unacceptable proposals for Kiev, which sees only one possible ending to the conflict: "Ukraine will demilitarize the Russian Federation, ousting the invaders from all the occupied territories", said Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.
Moscow then lashed out again against the West and the United States, accused by Lavrov of "doing everything to make the conflict even more violent", of having led "to the breaking of ties between Russia and Europe" and also of plotting to assassinate Vladimir Putin (here the Russian minister cited unspecified threats from "anonymous officials" of the Pentagon).
In the evening came the countermove on the price cap for Russian oil, with the decree signed by the Tsar blocking supplies of crude oil from February 1st to July 1st to all countries that have imposed a price ceiling.
With these premises, peace or even just a truce remain a mirage, and while President Putin met with his Belarusian ally Lukashenko in St. Petersburg to "finalise many issues",
the air-raid alarm sounded again across Ukraine due to two MiGs taking off from an airfield in the Minsk region.
Then the news of a family of eight exterminated by gunshots to the head in Makiivka, in the Donetsk region occupied by the Russians, arouses horror.
Among the victims, also four children aged 1, 7 and 9 years.
A massacre for which the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petr Andryushchenko, accused the bloodthirsty mercenaries of Wagner.
The Russians eventually bombed the maternity ward of a hospital in Kherson, fortunately without causing any casualties.
In Donbass the "situation is difficult and painful", Zelensky reported, while fighting continues in Bakhmut in Donetsk and in Svatove and Kreminna in Lugansk.
And if millions of people are still left without electricity,
hope appears for New Year's Eve: "In the absence of bombing, the holidays will pass without emergency blackouts," said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
In the midst of so much desperation, what happened on December 23 in Kherson is already being called 'the Christmas miracle': two rockets flew into a Catholic church full of people and even children, but they did not explode.
One fell and broke in two, the other got stuck in the wall.
"God commands. A person shoots but God controls that rocket", commented the bishop of Odessa-Simferopol, Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk.
what happened on 23 December in Kherson: two rockets flew into a Catholic church full of people and even children, but they did not explode.
One fell and broke in two, the other got stuck in the wall.
"God commands. A person shoots but God controls that rocket", commented the bishop of Odessa-Simferopol, Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk.
what happened on 23 December in Kherson: two rockets flew into a Catholic church full of people and even children, but they did not explode.
One fell and broke in two, the other got stuck in the wall.
"God commands. A person shoots but God controls that rocket", commented the bishop of Odessa-Simferopol, Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk.
