1300 soldiers killed so far
Zelenskyj quantifies Ukrainian losses
03/12/2022, 6:47 p.m
When it comes to information about casualties in their own ranks, both the Russian and the Ukrainian army are actually reticent. For the first time since the second day of the war, Ukrainian President Selenskyj spoke to international journalists about fallen Ukrainian soldiers.
About 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since war broke out in Ukraine more than two weeks ago. That’s what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said to international journalists. The Ukrainian army has so far kept a low profile when it comes to information about losses in its own ranks and only named the number of allegedly killed Russian soldiers. “We killed about 1,300 soldiers and Russia killed more than 12,000,” said the president. The figures cannot be independently verified.
Most recently, on the second day of the war, February 25, Selenskyj spoke of 137 fallen Ukrainian soldiers. In its only statement so far on March 2, Russia had given a figure of almost 500 killed by its own armed forces. The Donetsk separatists recently spoke of around 200 of their own fighters having been killed so far. At the beginning of March, Moscow claimed that 2,870 soldiers had already been killed on the Ukrainian side.
Russian forces have suffered significant casualties since the start of their attack on Ukraine, according to Zelenskyy. “This is the biggest blow to the Russian army in decades,” Zelenskyy said in a video message released on Saturday. “Nowhere has it lost more in so few days,” Zelenskjy said on the 17th day of the war. “Our armed forces are doing everything to discourage the enemy from continuing the war against Ukraine. The losses of the Russian troops are colossal.” According to Ukrainian data, more than 360 Russian tanks and more than 1,200 other armored vehicles have been destroyed so far, as well as about 60 combat aircraft and 80 helicopters.
There is also talk of considerable Russian losses in Western intelligence circles. When it comes to information about casualties in their own ranks, both the Russian and the Ukrainian army keep a low profile. Rather, they report on territory gains and destroyed military technology on the other side. “Most of the world’s armies don’t have what the Russian troops lost during the invasion,” said Zelenskyy.
“Russian soldiers are surrendering not just individually, but in groups. Whole groups are trying to get from Ukraine, home, to Russia.” Referring to Soviet history and the victory over Nazi Germany in the “Great Patriotic War,” Zelenskyy said, “This is a patriotic war. This is a people’s war. This is our war. This is the war for our independence.”