A Ukrainian solider walks amid the mass grave, dug by Russian occupiers, in Izyum in northeast Ukraine, September 2022 (Reuters)

EA on BBC Radio Scotland and India’s WION News: Ukraine and Cluster Munitions

Saturday’s Coverage: Turkey Backs Kyiv’s NATO Membership

Map: Institute for Study of War

UPDATE 1224 GMT:

In a brief meeting in Lutsk in western Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda have discussed Tuesday’s NATO summit in Lithuania.

UPDATE 0554 GMT:

Five Ukrainian commanders, all former prisoners of war, returned to Ukraine from Turkey on Saturday.

The commanders — Denys Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Serhyi Volynsky, Denys Shleha and Oleh Khomenko — led the defense of the port city of Mariupol during 12 weeks of Russian bombing, ground attacks, and siege from the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion until May 2022.

They were part of a prisoner exchange brokered by Ankara last year. Under the terms, commanders were to stay in Turkey until the end of the war.

But on Saturday, after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul, the commanders flew with Zelenskiy on his private plane to Kyiv.

“They will finally be with their relatives,” Zelenskiy tweeted.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov complained, “The return of the leaders of the Azovites from Turkey to Ukraine is nothing more than a direct violation of the terms of the existing agreements.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia’s invasion has killed more than 10,500 Ukrainian civilians, including about 500 children, and committed 94,000 war crimes in its first 500 days, says Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin.

Kostin added in a Telegram post that the Russians have destroyed 115,000 “civil infrastructure objects” since February 24, 2022.

On Saturday, Kostin’s office said it had confirmed the deaths of 494 children and wounding of 1,051. Most of the victims were in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions, with others in Kyiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Mykolaiv.

The officials emphasized that the actual toll is higher.

These are not the final numbers. Work is ongoing to establish the data in combat zones, as well as in the temporarily occupied and liberated territories.

The UN said on Friday that it has confirmed the deaths of more than 9,000 Ukrainian civilians, including more than 500 children. It added said the numbers are conservative.

Prosecutor General Kostin assured, “No crime will go unpunished….There are already 353 suspects, 219 accused, and 53 criminals received sentences in Ukrainian courts.”

He noted cooperation with the International Criminal Court, producing an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin’s arrest over the deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia and Russian-occupied territory, and the creation of the International Register of Damage to ensure compensation for victims of the invasoin.

“The path to justice is not easy. But, we are moving forward. Together with the entire civilized world,” Kostin summarized.