Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that his forces have been suffering at least 50 casualties a day during the ongoing military conflict with Russia. He claimed, however, that the Russian side was losing several times more.
Speaking to French news outlets as part of the ‘Face a Zelensky’ program, the Ukrainian leader said that Kiev has estimates of daily casualties being suffered by the Ukrainian army amid the ongoing conflict with Moscow, but noted that these numbers were not entirely accurate.
“It’s about 50 people a day. But these are not exact numbers, because we don’t know how many soldiers or civilians remain in [Russian-controlled] territories,” said Zelensky. He then claimed that there have been “five times less” Ukrainian military casualties than Russian ones.
He further elaborated that the position of the Ukrainian military was not to name the exact number of dead or wounded Ukrainian servicemen, noting that “we have to be careful with the numbers, because we are talking about human lives.”
Zelensky’s statement comes after the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that Russia’s forces have lost nearly 6,000 troops since Moscow launched its military offensive in Ukraine.
Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu claimed, however, that losses on the Ukrainian side were ten times higher, at an estimated 61,000 soldiers dead and over 49,000 wounded.
“Initially, the Armed Forces of Ukraine amounted to between 201,000 and 202,000 people, and since then they have suffered losses of around 100,000,” the minister said.
Shoigu added that Russian forces and the militias of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics have also reportedly eliminated over 2,000 “mercenaries” fighting for Kiev, leaving just over 1,000 foreigners still in the ranks of the Ukrainian military.