Russian President Vladimir Putin this week gave a rare update on the number of casualties and prisoners of war from his country’s ongoing war in Ukraine, although his figures contradict Western estimates of the human cost of its ongoing invasion.
At a meeting in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, Putin told the heads of several international news agencies that there are 1,348 Russian soldiers and officers held captive in Ukraine, compared to 6,465 Ukrainians held in Russia, RIA Novosti and the news agency reported. TASS news.
He also claimed that Moscow lost just one soldier for every five that Kiev has.
“I can tell you that our losses, especially irrecoverable losses, are certainly significantly lower than those of the opposing party,” Putin said, as reported by TASS.
The Russian president’s claims contradict Ukrainian and U.S. battlefield estimates, which the most recent of which reported that Moscow has suffered 515,000 casualties, including more than 50,000 deaths, since the start of the war in February 2022. The real death toll may actually be much higher, as there are no reliable exact figures for casualties Kremlin military.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky estimated in February that around 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the fighting, although Western intelligence officials believe that number is also much higher.
Although Kiev’s losses appear to be lower than its invader’s, Russia has much more capacity to absorb higher death counts, given its larger population and rigorous recruitment methods.
In a bid to keep new recruits on the battlefield, Ukrainian lawmakers earlier this month lowered the eligible age for conscription from 27 to 25.
Zelensky also encouraged war-eligible Ukrainian men to return to their country, as more than 4.2 million people, mostly women, children and the elderly, fled Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.
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