Ukraine – Russian War: A collaborator of Zelensky revealed that the war caused 13,000 deaths.
- Author, Elsa Maishman and Jaroslav Lukiv
- Authority, BBC news
photo credit, Getty’s image
Funeral for Staff Sergeant Yuriy Chernenko, who died in Lviv in November.
According to a senior official, up to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died since the start of the Russian invasion.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said between 10,000 and 13,000 soldiers were killed.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia tend to release casualty figures, and Mr Podolyak’s comments have not been confirmed by the Ukrainian military.
In June, he claimed that between 100 and 200 Ukrainian soldiers were being killed every day.
Last month, America’s most senior general, Mark Milley, revealed that some 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed or wounded since the start of the war.
In a video address on Wednesday, Ursula Von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, reported that 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed.
However, a spokesperson for the European Commission clarified that this was an error and the figures referred to those killed and injured.
Speaking to Ukraine’s Channel 24 TV channel, Podolyak claimed that Kyiv was “openly talking about the number of people killed”.
“We have an official assessment from the General Staff, an official assessment from the Supreme Commander [M. Zelensky]and they range from 10,000 to 12,500-13,000 dead,” he said.
He added that the number of civilians killed could be “significant”. BBC News has counted around 3,600 civilian deaths in mid-June. This figure is now likely to be much higher.
Ms von der Leyen said that 20,000 Ukrainian civilians had been killed. Although this figure was not retracted by the European Commission, it was removed from later versions of the video, along with claims that 100,000 soldiers died.
Podolyak also stated that up to 100,000 Russian soldiers had died since the invasion began on February 24, and another 100,000 to 150,000 were injured, missing or unable to return to battle.
The BBC Russian Service has determined that at least 9,311 Russian soldiers of all levels have died since the February 24 invasion, while the actual death toll could be over 18,600.
photo credit, SCREENSHOTS/BBC
Ukrainian soldiers carry the coffin of one of their dead comrades.
- Ukraine’s military says Russia used a dummy nuclear-capable missile to undermine Ukraine’s air defenses. According to Ukrainian military experts, Russia uses rockets designed for nuclear use without explosive warheads, which could be because the country has used many other missiles in large-scale attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.
- Another senior adviser to President Zelensky, Oleg Ustenko, accused BP of being entitled to hundreds of millions of pounds in “blood money” from investments in Russia. BP said it was no longer receiving profits from Russian energy giant Rosneft.
- The US and French presidents said they would continue to work together to support Ukraine and hold Russia accountable for its actions. During a press conference organized as part of President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the White House, President Biden also stated that he was “ready to speak with Mr. Putin” to negotiate an end to the war.
- According to a new report, TikTok hosts dozens of videos glorifying the violence of Russian mercenary group Wagner. This video has been viewed more than a billion times, according to the American organization NewsGuard. TikTok says it will take action against any content that violates its policies.
