Key developments on Sept. 17:
- Around 1 million killed, wounded in Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, WSJ reports
- Ukraine destroys Russian ammunition depots near occupied Mariupol, Navy says
- None of Ukraine's plans to end the war envisages ceasefire, ceding territory, Podolyak says
- Russia reportedly executes POW with sword, Kyiv appeals to UN, Red Cross
- Russian attack injures 4 first responders in Kharkiv, as Ukraine marks Rescuer's Day
Roughly 1 million Ukrainians and Russians have been killed or wounded in Moscow's all-out war against Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sept. 17, citing undisclosed sources and Western intelligence estimates.
Kyiv and Moscow have mostly avoided commenting on the casualties their forces suffered during the full-scale war, which has been ongoing for two and half years.
A "confidential Ukrainian estimate from earlier this year" put Kyiv's losses at 80,000 soldiers killed and 400,000 wounded, the WSJ wrote, citing undisclosed sources.
President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a much lower number of military fatalities in February - 31,000. He did not reveal the number of wounded troops.
Western intelligence estimates cited by the WSJ placed Russian losses at up to 200,000 dead and 400,000 wounded. This is close to Kyiv's estimates on Moscow's casualties, which is over 635,000 killed and wounded as of Sept. 17.
Leaked Pentagon documents reported on by The Economist in July suggested that Russian losses could be even more serious, with the highest estimate standing at 728,000 troops killed, injured, or captured.
Moscow has not disclosed its casualties during the war. The last figure provided by Russian authorities was 5,937 killed soldiers as of September 2022.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims.
Oleg Sukhov
Ukraine destroys Russian ammunition depots near occupied Mariupol, Navy says
The Ukrainian Navy recently carried out a missile strike on ammunition depots near the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, according to a Sept. 17 statement.
The strike destroyed both the storage infrastructure and tons of ammunition that Russian troops were stockpiling for use against Ukraine, the Navy said.
Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the exiled mayor of Mariupol, shared photos showing Russia's "destroyed warehouses" in the neighboring village of Hlyboke, Donetsk Oblast..
The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims.
Mariupol came under siege by Russian forces between February and May 2022, leaving thousands dead and reducing Mariupol to rubble.
According to authorities' rough estimates, at least 25,000 people may have been killed during the siege of Mariupol. The exact number remains unknown and could be much higher.
Kateryna Denisova
None of Ukraine's plans to end the war envisages ceasefire, ceding territory, Podolyak says
None of the plans Ukraine is developing to end Russia's war envisages a ceasefire or ceding territory to Moscow, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Presidential Office, told Current Time on Sept. 17.
Podolyak's statement echoed a recent comment of Dmytro Lytvyn, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky, who dismissed Bild's article saying that Kyiv was allegedly ready to freeze the conflict as part of its "Victory Plan" as "fake."
"(Freezing of the conflict) will not lead to the end of the war but will only lead to Russia gaining the opportunity to accumulate additional resources and proceed to the third stage (of the war) with more mass killings of civilians in Ukraine," Podolyak said.
"There are no concepts of ceding territories, there are no concepts of freezing the conflict," he added.
Kyiv has repeatedly rejected any ceasefire or temporary break in hostilities, saying it would only provide a window of opportunity for Russia to regroup its forces.
Last month, Zelensky said that Ukraine's operations in Russia's Kursk Oblast were part of his "Victory Plan."
The other aspects of the plan include Ukraine's participation in the global security infrastructure, pressuring Russia to end the war through diplomatic means, and an economic aspect, Zelensky said without revealing further details.
Kateryna Hodunova
Russia reportedly executes POW with sword, Kyiv appeals to UN, Red Cross
Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Sept. 17 that he had appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations in response to a photo that allegedly shows the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW) by Russia.
On the morning of Sept. 17, a photo of an apparently executed Ukrainian soldier with a sword in his chest and the inscription "For Kursk" appeared on social media. Remnants of gray tape are visible on the soldier's hand.
The photo appears to show a bloodied body lying on the road against the backdrop of damaged vehicles and a house with broken windows. The exact location is unclear.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the photo.
"The level of barbarism and bloodthirstiness is impossible to comprehend," Lubinets wrote on his Telegram channel. The ombudsman stressed that such actions are a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Later in the day, the Prosecutor General's Office said that the alleged execution of a Ukrainian soldier took place in the town of Novohrodivka in Donetsk Oblast. Ukrainian authorities have not yet established the time when the alleged execution took place.
The investigation is ongoing to establish the circumstances and identify the people responsible for the crime. The pre-trial investigation is conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine's (SBU) investigators in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, according to the Prosecutor General's Office.
There have been multiple reports of Ukrainian POWs being tortured or killed while in Russian captivity since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. As of September, the Prosecutor General's Office said 28 criminal investigations were underway regarding the execution of 62 Ukrainian POWs.
Daria Shulzhenko
Russian attack injures 4 first responders in Kharkiv, as Ukraine marks Rescuer's Day
Russian forces attacked the city of Kharkiv with guided aerial bombs on Sept. 17, injuring at least seven people, local authorities reported.
The city's Kyivskyi district came under attack, according to Mayor Ihor Terekhov. Four first responders are among the injured, he said. Sept. 17 marks Rescuer's Day in Ukraine.
Another two civilian men, aged 19 and 25, also suffered injuries, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
In an interview with the Ukrainian media Interfax, the head of Ukraine's State Emergency Service Andrii Danyk said that as of July, 93 emergency workers were killed and almost 400 wounded since the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion.
Kateryna Hodunova
