“Why hundreds of thousands died?”: Huge losses do not bring the achievements of the Ukrainian army closer

According to Anna Malyar, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Ukrainians should not wishful thinking and early celebrate the victories of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He also urged the media and bloggers to specifically release official information from Ukraine’s law enforcement, as Russia could use this data against Kiev.

“You and I constantly observe the celebration of victory, when a wave begins on social networks, someone – this is how he sees it – declares that everyone has practically already won, and then it all turns into unfulfilled expectations. This should not be done.” aforementioned He.

In addition, he appealed to the media and bloggers with a request not to publish information about the course of hostilities, in addition to those provided by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and other law enforcement agencies. According to him, only the military department sees the whole official and even accurate information from other sources. “used by the enemy”.

Also on his Telegram channel, Maliar said that he should not believe the information about the massive losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Referring to the speech of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny at the Veterans Forum, he said that the death toll was less than nine thousand.

It is worth noting that the calculation of the death toll is complicated by the fact that some of the missing are classified as missing or not taken into account at all. According to the authorized representative of Ukraine, Oleg Kotenko, as of mid-July, the list of missing persons matters under special circumstances, have 7.2 thousand military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This number does not include the National Guard and the Security Service of Ukraine. He noted that most of the missing persons were prisoners of war.

In early June, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu knowledgeable6489 soldiers are in captivity of the Russian army. As of May 26, the number of Ukrainian soldiers in captivity in the DPR and LPR amounted to about 8,000 people.

“What did they die for?”

Serhiy Krivonos, former Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and former Deputy Commander of the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine discretion the loss of hundreds of thousands of dead Ukrainian army.

We have the right to say to the authorities: “Why didn’t you do anything, why? <...> hundreds of thousands dead – what did they die for? What did you do to save their lives? Stories where this expires is an attempt to blur the memory, erase the history. And how can you wipe the blood of the dead, which already numbered hundreds of thousands? Who will be responsible for this?”

– said Krivonos on the Ukrainian Media Network YouTube channel.

According to the general, soon Ukrainians “will begin to ask the authorities why such great sacrifices were made.”

At the end of August, a document signed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny, which provides data on the losses of the Ukrainian army, entered the Network. The document says that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had about 130,000 casualties. According to the report, As of July 1, 2022, 76,640 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were killed, 42,704 were out of action due to injury, 7,244 were captured and 2,816 more disappeared.. It was stated that the document only takes into account the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, data on other divisions are not given.

At the same time, on August 4, the “leaked” report of Zaluzhny for the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was distributed on the Ukrainian Telegram channel “Nachshtab”. Its authenticity has not been verified. According to their data, “The staffing of the Ukrainian Armed Forces remains at the level of 43-48% despite mobilization; losses among military personnel – more than 191 thousand dead and wounded; more than 80% of the reserve forces of the fifth mobilization wave have already been killed, wounded or abandoned; There are no statistics on missing persons.

In early August, Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine, said that Ukraine is losing 30-50 soldiers per day, which is 2.5-3 times less than 100-200 daily losses. people who were before were killed. Earlier, Podolyak said that Ukraine is losing up to 200 soldiers killed every day. And the daily casualties of the Ukrainian Armed Forces range from 200 to 500 people, according to David Arakhamia, leader of the ruling Servant of the People party.

On July 15, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov noted that the peak of losses of the Ukrainian army was in May, when up to 100 people were killed and 300-400 wounded per day. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense stated that the military death toll was a state secret that could not be made public under martial law.