Here are the top developments of the day on the Russia-Ukraine crisis:

  1. Over 2,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since the Russian began on February 24, the country’s State Emergency Service said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The toll does not include defenders. The United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner, however, pegged the civilian casualties at 536 till March 1, though it said the real toll could be much higher. It said the figures include 136 civilians killed and 400 civilians injured.
  2. The World Health Organization expressed concern about the humanitarian emergency in Ukraine and said it is working to assess the impact of the conflict on the healthcare system. Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also highlighted reports of attacks on health facilities and health workers. He said the organisation had received unconfirmed reports of such incidents and one confirmed incident last week during which a hospital attack killed four people and injured 10 others. He underlined that attacks on healthcare are a violation of international humanitarian law.
  3. The Russian defence ministry said its forces have captured Kherson, a provincial capital in southern Ukraine, though the city’s mayor denied the claim, reported The Guardian. The report said the claims, if true, would make Kherson the first “sizeable” city in Ukraine to have fallen into Russian control. The Kherson mayor said the city witnessed heavy fighting overnight and that the Russians had control over the railway station and port by early on Wednesday.
  4. Ukraine’s port city Mariupol had been bombarded for 15 hours continuously by the Russian army and was “near to a humanitarian catastrophe”, the deputy mayor Sergiy Orlov said, reported the BBC. “They are trying to destroy the city,” said Orlov, adding that Russian forces had nearly encircled the city and that there were at least “hundreds” dead.
  5. The Indian embassy in Ukraine on Wednesday evening advised all its citizens to immediately leave the eastern city of Kharkiv, on foot if necessary, in view of the deteriorating situation and reach three suburbs before 6 pm Ukranian time (9 pm Indian Standard Time). The advisory was issued as the Russian offensive on the battered eastern Ukranian city of Kharkiv intensified and stranded Indian students alleged they were not being allowed to board trains.