 confirmed on Friday that 9,000 civilians had been killed so far in the conflict. The mission warned that the actual toll is likely to be far higher than the number of officially confirmed deaths. HRMMU also said that three times as many civilians were killed in the last 500 days compared with the entire previous eight years of hostilities in eastern Ukraine. And this week new fears of a nuclear attack were sown after Ukraine and Russia accused each other of planning to attack one of the world's largest atomic power plants. Below are the most profound pictures from a year of vicious conflict... Body bags containing the slaughtered townspeople of the suburb of Bucha, which lies just outside Kyiv to the northwest, lie tossed in a mass burial pit beside the gilt-domed and gunshot-riddled St Andrew the First-Called church. The Russian army has been accused of war crimes after horrific details of executions, torture and widespread sexual assault emerged after the town was liberated from barbaric Russian hands in April An aerial view of the completely destroyed shopping mall after Russian shelling in Kyiv on March 21. At least eight people were slaughtered in the attack on the Retroville){kind=link}
WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES: Today marks 500 days since Russia invaded Ukraine – a grim milestone for a country which has seen so much loss, devastation and destruction as well as the deaths of thousands of civilians
More than 9,000 civilians, including 500 children, have been killed since Russia rolled its tanks into Ukraine 500 days ago.
Today’s milestone is a grim one in a conflict raging with no end in sight. Intense battles continued on Saturday in the country’s east and south as Ukrainian forces pressed their attacks on Russian defences.
While the fighting had fallen largely into a stalemate, Ukraine’s government and its Western supporters hope a broad counteroffensive launched last month will start to see battle lines shifting.
The UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) confirmed on Friday that 9,000 civilians had been killed so far in the conflict. The mission warned that the actual toll is likely to be far higher than the number of officially confirmed deaths.