Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sent a video message to the people of Russia with drastic words about heavy Russian war losses. “At the focal points of particularly heavy fighting, our front lines of defense are practically overwhelmed with the bodies of Russian soldiers,” said Zelenskyj on Sunday night.
“And these bodies, these bodies will not be recovered by anyone,” he continued. “And they’re chasing new units over them, some kind of reserve that the Russian commanders are collecting somewhere.” He can understand that Russia has almost endless reserves of soldiers and military equipment. “But I would like to know from the citizens of Russia: what has been done to you over the years that you have not noticed your losses?”. So far, more than 14,000 Russian soldiers have been killed. “That’s 14,000 mothers, 14,000 fathers, wives, children, relatives, friends – and you don’t notice that?”
The Ukrainian account of the killed Russian soldiers cannot be independently verified – just as little as that of their own military losses, which the state leadership put at around 1,300 soldiers around a week ago. So far, the Russian side has officially confirmed just under 500 casualties in the ranks of its own army.