In a televised address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that almost 9,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the start of the invasion.

He said in the Mykolayiv region in southern Ukraine they've had to use dozens of helicopters to evacuate dead and wounded soldiers.

"Ukraine doesn't want to be covered with Russian corpses,” Zelenskyy said, appealing to the Russian troops. “Tell your commanders that you don't want to die, get back to where you've come from.”

Ukraine's figures stand in stark contrast to Russian reports on its casualties. Russia's Defense Ministry said earlier Wednesday that 498 Russian service members have been killed and 1,597 wounded since the invasion started.

ABC News hasn't independently verified a total.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell

Several hundred Stinger anti-aircraft missiles were delivered to Ukraine's military Tuesday, a senior U.S. official has confirmed to ABC News.

Additional shipments of the portable surface-to-air missiles are anticipated in the near future, the official said.

The missiles are part of a $350 million lethal defensive aid package to Ukraine that President Joe Biden authorized late last week. It also includes anti-tank weapons, small arms and body armor.

Germany also announced in recent days it will provide 500 Stinger missiles to Ukraine, along with 1,000 anti-tank weapons.

-ABC News' Luis Martinez

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Communication, aka SWIFT, confirmed Wednesday that seven Russian banks will be removed from its network as part of sanctions issued against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

That includes the banks' Russia-based subsidiaries, SWIFT said.

"Diplomatic decisions taken by the European Union, in consultation with the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, bring SWIFT into efforts to end this crisis by requiring us to disconnect select Russian banks from our financial messaging services," SWIFT said in a statement. "As previously stated, we will fully comply with applicable sanctions laws."

The European Union identified the affected banks as Bank Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Bank Rossiya, Sovcombank, VEB and VTB.

The sanctions go into effect on March 12, SWIFT said.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou

The International Criminal Court has "immediately" started investigating whether war crimes have been committed in Ukraine, its chief prosecutor announced Wednesday.

ICC prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan had indicated earlier this week that he would move to request an investigation, though he first required authorization for a pretrial chamber or a referral from the court's member states.

On Wednesday, 38 members made the referral -- marking the largest referral in the history of the ICC, according to the British Foreign Office. Khan's office can now move straight into its probe.

"With an active investigation now underway, I repeat my call to all those engaged in hostilities in Ukraine to adhere strictly to the applicable rules of international humanitarian law," Khan said in a statement. "No individual in the Ukraine situation has a licence to commit crimes within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court."

Neither Russia nor Ukraine is among the court's 123 members, but Ukraine has provided authorization for an investigation in its territory, Khan said.

-ABC News' Conor Finnegan