Marta Gichko17:38, 25.02.24
For the first time, the president publicly announced the number of military personnel killed during the two years of confrontation.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky for the first time publicly disclosed the losses of the Ukrainian Defense Forces during two years of a full-scale war against the Russian Federation.
As Zelensky said during a press conference on Sunday, February 25, from February 24, 2022 to today, 31 thousand Ukrainian military personnel died in the war.
“This is a very serious moment. Recently there were voices in the radical part of some American audiences who are not on our side. They said: ‘How many more victims do you want?’ Ukraine lost 300 thousand dead.” Then there was information from the Russians, who said that Ukraine lost somewhere around 100 thousand killed. And that the Russians lost about 60 thousand. This is all a lie, nonsense. Every person is a big loss for us. .. 31 thousand Ukrainians – military – died in this war,” Zelensky said.
All other figures cited by pro-Russian forces in the world and the Kremlin are lies, the president emphasized. He added that these are very big losses for Ukraine. Russian losses – 180 thousand. Up to 500 thousand more Russians were injured. The president did not name the number of missing people.
“There are 31 thousand Ukrainians (killed – UNIAN). I won’t say how many were wounded, since Russia will know how many people left the battlefield. I just won’t say about it,” the president added.
Regarding the number of missing people, Zelensky noted that the number will not be announced, as it may be biased. According to the president, sometimes it is possible to return from captivity people who were considered missing.
(C)UNIAN 2024
But what about the figure of 400.000 killed Nazis, not true?
I guess that number included seriously injured soldiers, those who had lost limbs, and could not return to combat. For military purposes, it’s only important how many soldiers the enemy lost, not necessarily how many were killed.
Btw, I suspect the Ukrainian number downplays the actual casualties a bit, too. Not only does it not include missing soldiers, but possibly also not the casualties in the volunteer units that don’t officially belong to the army. Please remember that Zelenskyy had talked before about the kill ration being 1:5. That would put Ukrainian losses at 38,000.
It’s a bit surprising that Zelenskyy went public with casualty numbers, after previously keeping them under wrap. However, I imagine that may be intended to stop rumours about higher losses. Possibly a move to reduce fears about mobilisation. The blood toll is tragic, but not shocking, and the point is that most soldiers will return home alive. 😕
If the info he provided is true, 31,000 is the entire population of a small city. Or: a city of 100,000 that loses all its fighting men.
Anyway. It’s a very terrible amount in a country that values human life.
And we still don’t know civilian losses. It is going to be a shattering amount.
Ukraine loses its finest. RuZZia gets rid of expendables: criminal trash, scum, rapists, thieves, torturers etc.
To win, Ukraine needs to inflict consistent orc losses at the very least on a 10-1 scale. It looks like they’re achieving 6-1, which is nowhere near enough.
The failure to take orcs out in sufficient numbers to make their occupation untenable is down to the abysmal failure of the allies, who have turned out at best to be fair weather friends only.
Hmm, Scradge1, I don’t think a 5-1, or maybe 6-1 kill ration is too low. Actually, it’s a huge success in a war against an army that claimed to be the second best in the world! In reality, only the second best in Ukraine, that’s evident now. However, with more support from Nato, especially sufficient ammunition, the superiority of the AFU could be significantly increased, that’s true. The blame for the current crisis has to be laid fair and square on the shoulders of Trumpists in US Congress. They have proven to be committed allies of Putin. As I see it, they all should be tried for treason.