Information about the losses suffered by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (APU) is not published because it is a state secret. This was stated by the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Anna Malyar, according to the news of the TSN TV channel.
“The death toll is a state secret during martial law. It is due to military interest and the fact that the enemy does not know these figures and must use them for their own means,” the Ukrainian official said.
He added that authorities have reached out to citizens and public initiatives trying to make the missing figures public, “thinking that someone is hiding them”.
“It’s not like that, don’t work for the enemy and don’t release these figures until martial law is over,” Malyar said.
On June 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces killed 60-100 people a day and injured about 500. On June 9, the country’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said that Ukrainian troops are losing 100 soldiers a day every day.
At the same time, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for the first time published data on the strength of the Ukrainian army. The Armed Forces of Ukraine includes up to 700 thousand people, the National Police forces – up to 100 thousand, the National Guard – up to 90 thousand, the border guards – up to 60 thousand people.
On June 15, Mark Milley, chairman of the Committee of the Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that about 100 people were killed and up to 300 wounded a day.
British newspaper The Independent, citing American intelligence data, wrote that Ukrainian troops suffered heavy losses. This is due to the superiority of the Russian troops 20 to 1 in artillery, and in ammunition – 40 to 1.
The article also stated that the Armed Forces of Ukraine has exhausted almost all its reserves, while the RF Armed Forces “does not intend to give up their positions.” British journalists added that the cases of desertions of the Ukrainian army became more frequent, more soldiers surrendered.
At the same time, the New York Times noted that Ukrainian officials deliberately withheld information from Washington because Kiev feared a slowdown in arms supplies.
The office of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky is “trying to give the impression of strength and determination” so that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not assumed to be lost. The NYT article also states that US intelligence does not have accurate information about casualties among Ukrainian troops. Therefore, the United States tried to find this data from other sources, not disclosed.
On July 9, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had captured the brigade in Kharkov due to casualties and desertions.
“Due to heavy casualties and desertion, the troops of the 127th Regional Defense Brigade in Kharkov are understaffed by prisoners serving their sentences in the city’s correctional facilities,” Konashenkov said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense last reported missing during the special operation on March 25 – at that time, according to the agency, 1,351 people were killed and 3,825 injured in the Russian Armed Forces.
“Since then, the data has not been voiced by the Department of Defense and I will explain why. There are, of course, the wounded at the moment, but not so many dead. And this is the result of a change in the approach to war tactics, ”the chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee Andrey Kartapolov told RIA Novosti.
Source: Gazeta
