The number of dead soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) published by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is more than twice lower than the data published by Washington last summer. This was reported by The New York Times (NYT).
“The figures released by Zelensky on Sunday differ sharply from those of US officials, who last summer described the losses as much higher. They said back then that about 70,000 Ukrainians had been killed and 100,000 to 120,000 wounded,” the NYT publication said.
The newspaper notes that Volodymyr Zelenskyy named a specific figure for Ukraine’s losses for the first time during the military conflict. At the same time, he refused to give the number of wounded or missing, saying that Russia could use this information to estimate the size of the country’s armed forces.
“Zelensky’s calculation cannot be independently verified. The unusual admission came at a time when his country’s armed forces have gone on the defensive, running short of manpower and ammunition along much of the front line while Russian forces continue to attack in the east and south,” the NYT concluded.
Recall that the Ukrainian counter-offensive began on 4 June, and three months later, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated its failure. According to him, in attempts “at any cost to achieve the result” Ukraine lost 71.5 thousand military personnel – as if “these are not their people”. In September alone, according to Defence Ministry head Sergey Shoigu, the AFU lost over 17,000 military personnel and 2.7 thousand weapons.