August 24 is Ukraine’s independence day – the day when, in 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic approved the Act of Declaration of Independence at a special session. Thirty-four years on, this historic day also marks six months since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression against its neighbour.
Russia’s invasion has been catastrophic in several ways and there are no signs that the war will come to an end anytime soon.
According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine as a direct result of the fighting and almost 8,000 have been injured. These officially verified figures are unlikely to capture the totality of Ukrainian civilian casualties. Even this conservative estimate of deaths already outstrips by half the number of people killed in 30 years of civil war in Northern Ireland.
