Russian military publishes Ukrainian casualty numbers

Ukraine has suffered the “irretrievable losses” of 23,367 troops since Russia launched its military offensive in February, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow stated on Saturday.

The casualty figures were revealed by the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov. He added that in the city of Mariupol alone, Ukraine has lost more than 4,000 fighters, including “foreign mercenaries” and “Nazis” associated with the notorious Azov and Aidar regiments.

Ukraine claims to have lost between 2,500 and 3,000 soldiers across its entire territory. President Volodymyr Zelensky gave this figure to CNN in an interview on Friday, while claiming that the Russian military had suffered as many as 20,000 casualties of its own. Moscow disputes Zelensky’s claims. According to a casualty count published by the Russian government last month, Russia had lost 1,351 troops.

In a statement, the general accused Zelensky of hiding the true scale of Ukraine’s losses, saying the president “is afraid to tell the people of Ukraine” how many soldiers have been lost.

Konashenkov said that over the course of the day, Russian forces launched high-precision missile strikes on six Ukrainian military equipment sites and seven troop strongholds, while Russian air assets destroyed 67 troop and equipment sites.

Russian forces shot down a Ukrainian military transport aircraft near Odessa, Konashenkov added, stating that the plane was “delivering a large batch of weapons supplied to Ukraine by Western countries.” Russia had previously declared that such foreign arms shipments would be considered “legitimate targets” by its forces.

Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden authorized an $800 million package of heavy weapons for Ukraine, including artillery pieces and helicopters. According to a CNN report on Friday, the first flight of weapons from this package was due to arrive in Ukraine within a day.

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