Kiev's forces have lost 10,000 personnel since the launch of Russia's military operation, presidential aide admits.
Ukrainian Armed Forces can admit to having lost 10,000 troops since the beginning of the Russian military offensive in late February, according to presidential aide Alexey Arestovich on Friday, while claiming Moscow's losses are significantly higher.
Russian sources believe Kiev is significantly underestimating its casualties.
In an interview with activist and YouTuber Mark Feygin, Arestovich revealed that 100 people died on average at the beginning of the conflict. In the Russian army, 1,000 per day died in the first 20 -- 30 days. He said that 200 -- 300 people die now, without proving any evidence to support his assertion.
He claimed that Friday was an unusual day for the Ukrainian army, as 600 people died in one day. Arestovich said that it will fluctuate like this: one to five, one to three, one to six.
Feygin asked if it is possible to say that the Ukrainian army had lost 10,000 soldiers, based on these calculations. He replied that.
The Ukrainian side has announced the total number of its losses for the first time. The figures released by the Russian Ministry of Defense on the Ukrainian Army's losses are much higher 23,367 as of April 18.
Moscow has not yet revealed the total numbers of its military casualties. Earlier this month, the head of the Russian Duma's defense committee, Andrey Kartapolov, claimed that the Russian army has practically stopped losing people due to changes in the military strategy. He said the Defense Ministry hasn't updated its information about the losses since March, when it reported 1,351 military personnel had been killed.
In April, a Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had suffered a lot of troops and it was a huge tragedy. Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, after Ukraine failed to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied that it was planning to retake the two republics by force.