Over 2,000 civilians killed in war-torn Ukraine: Reports

One of those killed was an Indian student in Kharkiv's shelling on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian embassy in Turkey gave the figure, quoting the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, the BBC reported. "Russia wants to erase our history," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemning a Russian missile strike that hit a Holocaust memorial in the capital here on Tuesday calling it "beyond humanity".

"Such a missile strike shows that for many people in Russia our Kyiv is completely foreign. They know nothing about our capital. About our history," Zelensky rued the attack on Babyn Yar memorial that commemorates the massacre of more than 33,000 Jews by Nazi troops in Kyiv during World War II.

As columns of tanks faced Tiananmen-like resistance from common Ukrainians in eastern and north-western corner cities of the nation under attack, the Indian Embassy in Ukraine on Wednesday issued an "urgent" advisory and asked all Indian nationals in Ukraine to leave Kharkiv immediately.

"Urgent advisory to all Indian nationals in Kharkiv immediately. Proceed to Pesochin, Babaye and Bezlyudovka as soon as possible. Under all circumstances they must reach these settlements by 1800 hrs Ukrainian time today," the advisory issued on Twitter said.

Meanwhile, Zelensky's video rang out warnings to his countrymen, reminding them, "...they (Russian) have an order to erase our history. Erase our country. Erase us all."

Seven days into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it remained unclear how many casualties Russia has sustained, as, despite the Ukrainian Army putting out details of Russian casualties, Moscow has not made it clear yet.

The Ukrainian government said on Wednesday the “indicative” number of Russia's losses stood at 5,840 people. Russia has only admitted it had "any losses" four days after it started the war, but stopped short had not given any numbers.

But multiple videos and pictures from battlefields, which went viral on social media, including those put out by official Facebook, Twitter and Telegram handle of Ukrainian authorities, suggest that invading forces have sustained severe casualties.

The Kyiv Independent put out a report on the fate of Russia's 35th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade in the war in Ukraine.

Dozens of Russian military service members were killed in action near the city of Chernihiv as a result of Ukrainian resistance in late February. Afterwards, scores of dead Russian bodies were sent home secretly, without the Russian leadership ever admitting their deaths, the reports said.

The Kyiv Independent said it has obtained a WhatsApp audio message recorded by a woman residing in the city of Aleysk in Russia's Altai region some 3,500 km east of Kyiv, the home base for the 35th Brigade. In the voice message, the unidentified woman wept telling her fellow WhatsApp group member that the local “tank brigade” was “totally destroyed in Ukraine.”

In particular, she mentioned that “just 18 out of 150 guys survived,” probably meaning one of the brigade's formations was destroyed by Ukrainian troops.