More than 9,000 civilians, including over 500 children, have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, some 500 days ago, the United Nations has said.

The UN also warned that the true number of fatalities could be much higher than what they have been able to confirm.

May and June have seen an increase in the number of civilians killed, the UN added, after a relative decline in civilian fatalities in the first four months of the year. This weekend marks exactly 500 days since the war began.

“Today we mark another grim milestone in the war that continues to exact a horrific toll on Ukraine’s civilians,” said Noel Calhoun, the deputy head of the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU)