“About 1,300 Ukrainian servicemen” have died since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, the Ukrainian president said on Saturday. Volodymyr Zelenskyduring a press conference in Kiev.
“We have about 1,300 deceased soldiers,” declared the Ukrainian president, without giving more details about this balance, the first given by the Ukrainian authorities since the beginning of the conflict on February 24.
Zelensky also said that the Russian army had lost “around 12,000 men”, in a “ratio of one to ten, which, however, does not make me happy”, he declared.
On March 2, the Russian army (which mobilized some 150,000 soldiers) claimed to have lost, for its part, 500 soldiers, a figure that has not been updated since then.
With heavy fighting in many cities across the country, most notably the siege of the Sea of Azov port city of Mariupol and near Kiev, the Pentagon estimated on March 8 that Russian losses ranged from 2,000 to 4,000 troops.
Speaking at a news conference, Zelensky said the Ukrainian and Russian negotiating teams had started discussing concrete issues instead of exchanging ultimatums.
The Ukrainian president insisted that the West should be more involved in negotiations to end the war, but welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s efforts to mediate between Ukraine and Russiaand said that he had suggested to Bennett that they hold talks in Jerusalem.
The Ukrainian president also said that most companies have stopped operating since the beginning of the invasion, which according to a Zelensky adviser had already caused more than 100,000 million dollars in damage.
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