660 days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, fighting continues to rage on all fronts and nothing seems to be able to stop them. Ten million civilians: women, children and the elderly have fled their homes since the start of the war, according to the UN. Since February 24, 2022, neither government involved in this conflict has provided data on the number of victims. Guest at the microphone of Pierre de Vilno, the extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of Ukraine in France, Vadym Omelchenko, provides the first information on the human toll of this war.
The Russians destroy all traces of their crimes
In just over a year and a half of war, military losses have been significant. Regarding civilians, it is difficult to establish the exact number of victims: “I can tell you that the losses are significant on our side. We have military losses, but also a lot of losses among civilians. And I can give you the exact number of children killed: 510”. An assessment which is only provisional since it does not take into account the children who were killed in the territories occupied by Russia.
Moreover, the exact number of victims may never be established with certainty because of Russian practices in these same territories: “In Mariupol, they destroyed the city, but also all traces of their crimes of destruction of human beings. There were collective graves, they used mobile crematoria. Despite everything, there is evidence and witnesses of crimes committed in Ukraine: “He (Étienne de Poncins, French ambassador to Ukraine, editor’s note) told me that, when he first arrived in Izyum, he saw the mass graves with his own eyes. They were entire families, parents with their children.”
Alexandre Orlov, the former Russian ambassador to France, said, again at the microphone of Pierre de Vilno, last week, that the Russians were only targeting military installations or generators. An assertion contradicted by Vadym Omelchenko: “It’s a lie. We have witnesses: independent experts, French investigators, gendarmes. What these puppets say, I don’t even want to comment. It will be the international tribunal which will give feedback.”