Russia, Ukraine war surpasses 2-week mark as Kyiv mayor says half of city has fled
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko says half of metropolitan Kyiv’s population – an estimated 2M people – has fled
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Just over two weeks have passed since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, as Kremlin forces pushed ahead in their efforts to advance on the capital city of Kyiv.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Thursday that 1,506 civilian casualties were reported in Ukraine since Feb. 24. The office recorded 549 people killed in Ukraine and 957 hurt.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, 2,316,002 people have fled the nation for neighboring countries since Feb. 24, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported Thursday.
ADVANCING ON KYIV
For days, Russia has continued its efforts to overtake Kyiv, the country’s capital, with Kremlin forces capturing parts of Kyiv’s suburbs and two cities.
On Thursday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said roughly half of metropolitan Kyiv’s population – an estimated 2 million people – had fled the city.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Every street, every house … is being fortified," he said in televised remarks, according to The Associated Press. "Even people who in their lives never intended to change their clothes, now they are in uniform with machine guns in their hands."
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Rita, a 29-year-old Ukrainian American woman who asked not to include her last name out of fear of Russian retaliation, moved from Donetsk, Ukraine, to eastern Tennessee in 2012. Her parents were visiting her sister, 34, in Kyiv when the war broke out, she said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Before they were able to flee to Poland on Tuesday, they had "heard bombing and artillery for days," Rita told Fox News Digital.
"I’ve been waking up 10 to 15 times a night to check in and make sure they are still alive," she said.
CASUALTIES
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that 529 people were killed and 957 were injured in Ukraine during the ongoing crisis. But the office also acknowledged that figures were likely actually considerably higher.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Of the 549 dead, 101 were confirmed to be men and 67 were women, while the genders of 340 adults had not yet been identified on Thursday, the OHCHR said.
Meanwhile, 41 children were among the dead, the office said. Of those 41, six were girls, nine were boys, and the genders of 26 kids was not immediately available.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As for those who were injured, but survived, 81 are men, 64 are women, and 740 other adults have not yet had their genders identified as of Thursday, the OHCHR said.
And 52 children have been injured and survived – 14 girls, four boys, and 34 whose genders were not yet specified, the office said Thursday.
The OHCHR has further said that 429 people who were killed and 472 who were injured were in other regions of Ukraine such as Kyiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson and Odesa, among others that were under government control at the time. While 123 of the people who were killed and 485 of those who were jury were in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions at the time.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The remaining victims were in government-controlled territories, or self-proclaimed "republics."
ESCAPING TO SAFETY
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported Thursday that 2,316,002 people had fled Ukraine as of Thursday, with the majority – an estimated 1,412,503 – escaping to Poland.
The office found that 214,600 other refugees fled to Hungary, 165,199 fled to Slovakia, 97,098 went to Russia, 84,671 went to Romania, 82,762 ended up in Moldova and 756 in Belarus. Meanwhile, a remaining 258,844 fled to "other European counties," the office reported.
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According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, more than 60,000 civilians had been evacuated Wednesday from war-torn Ukrainian conflict zones through a trio of humanitarian corridors.
RUSSIAN TROOPS
Details surrounding Russian casualties are murky. Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin, has deployed more than 150,000 military forces, according to The Associated Press. And Russia’s defense minister admitted earlier this week that some conscripts had also been deployed, despite Putin’s previous denials.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}On Tuesday, director of U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Scott D. Berrier estimated that between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian forces had been killed, according to the Washington Post. He reportedly noted that he was not certain of the actual number.
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And Wednesday, an unnamed U.S. official told CBS News that an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 Russia forces might have been killed since Feb. 24. The official then noted that the number was hard to pinpoint and "could be closer to 3,500," according to the report.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Peter Aitken and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.