Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolak told a Ukrainian television network that his country’s armed forces had lost between 10,000 and 13,000 soldiers so far in the war with Russia.
Podolak told Channel 24, “We have official numbers from the General Staff and official numbers from the Supreme Command, and according to their estimates, (between) 10,000 and 12,500 were killed,” according to AFP.
“We are frank about the death toll,” he added, noting that the number of wounded soldiers is greater than the dead.
between Kyiv and Brussels
Although these statements appear to be the first assessment of the death toll since the end of August, when the commander of the Ukrainian armed forces said that nearly 9,000 soldiers were killed in the war in Ukraine, it comes after a sharp disagreement with the European Commission, whose president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced Wednesday. In the past, Ukraine lost 100,000 military personnel in battles with Russian forces.
Apparently, von der Leyen’s statements angered Kyiv, as the Ukrainian presidential spokesman said: “The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, should not announce data on the losses of the Ukrainian army.. Zelensky and the Ukrainian Defense Minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, should only reporting such information.
He refused to apologize
Yesterday, Thursday, European Commission spokeswoman Dana Spinant announced that the Commission does not intend to apologize to Kiev after publishing information about the killing of 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers during the recent conflict.
“There was no need for an apology, we explained the context and reasons (for the statement) via social media platforms,” Spinant told a news conference in Brussels on Thursday. “We are working with Ukraine to achieve common goals, including investigating the crimes of this aggression and holding the perpetrators accountable.”
Yesterday, Wednesday, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, issued a statement on the necessity of assigning Russia “international responsibility” and using the frozen Russian funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
In support of what she spoke about, von der Leyen noted, in particular, that “according to estimates to date, more than 20,000 civilians and 100,000 soldiers have been killed (in Ukraine).”
Later, the European Commission withdrew the video in which von der Leyen indicated the number of dead Ukrainian soldiers and replaced it with another video that did not contain this information.
The press office of the President of the European Commission stated that what was stated in the statement was “inaccurate” and that the figure relates to the death toll and the wounded.
Statement by Dana Spinant
After von der Leyen’s first video, about the casualties of the Ukrainian army, was deleted, a spokeswoman for the President of the European Commission, Dana Spinant, commented in a post on her Twitter account, saying: “Many thanks to those who pointed out the inaccuracy of numbers in the previous version of this video.”
“The estimate used from external sources should have indicated casualties, that is, both dead and wounded,” she added.
She indicated that the purpose of declaring the number of Ukrainian dead was to “show Russia’s brutality.”
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