Ukraine Russia Conflict: Almost 21,000 Russian troops dead, says Ukraine

A total of 20,900 Russian troops have been “liquidated” during the invasion of Ukraine. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shared this information. 815 tanks, 2,087 armoured vehicles, 171 aircraft, and 150 helicopters belonging to Russia have been destroyed, said the Ukraine ministry. 

Russia launched a war on Ukraine on February 24. However, according to the latest updates, Russia has given Mariupol a fresh ultimatum to surrender at 2 pm today. In a statement issued early on Wednesday morning, the Russian defence ministry said its forces opened a humanitarian corridor from the Azovstal plant “for the withdrawal of Ukrainian servicemen” to “voluntarily lay down their arms” as well as to evacuate civilians. A commander for the Ukrainian marines fighting in Mariupol said his forces were “maybe facing our last days, if not hours” and appealed for extraction in a video message published to his Facebook account early on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said the intensity of fire by Russian troops towards Kharkiv, the Donbas, and Dnipro has “increased significantly”, one day after the Kremlin launched its long-anticipated offensive in eastern Ukraine.