“One million people are defending the country,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said
About 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in six months of Russian invasion, Ukrainian army chief of staff Valery Zaluzny said today, according to the news agency Interfax.
Speaking at an event in Kyiv honoring military veterans and families of soldiers killed in the war, Zaluzny said children needed protection in many parts of the country, including the capital. Kiev.
“They really do not understand anything that is going on and they definitely need protection … because their fathers have gone to the front and are probably among the almost 9,000 heroes who have been killed,” he said.
This is one of the rare announcements by Ukrainian officials on the subject of Kiev’s military losses in this war, which has unleashed Moscow on February 24.
The previous estimate was in mid-April, when President Volodymyr Zelensky said up to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and about 10,000 wounded since the Russian offensive began.
Zaluzny did not elaborate or say whether the number he cited included all armed forces personnel killed in action, such as border guards.
The president Zelensky he said at the event that about a million people are defending Ukraine as members of the armed forces or other services.
Zaluzny did not say how many civilians were killed or how many members of the Russian armed forces Kyiv estimates have been killed in the battle, but the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces has said 45,000 Russian soldiers have been killed. Russia has not said how many of its soldiers have been killed.
Reuters notes that it is unable to verify casualties on either side.
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