MELITOPOL, November 30. /TASS/. Irretrievable losses of Ukrainian troops have so far exceeded 200,000 people and are twice as heavy as the estimate presented by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Vladimir Rogov, who heads the We Stand With Russia movement, told TASS on Wednesday.
"The estimate could have been relevant back a few months ago, but so far the losses sustained by the regime of [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky are much greater than the figure mentioned by von der Leyen. Not just the estimates, but the information from Ukrainian hospitals and clinics confirms that. According to information at my disposal, irretrievable losses of Ukrainian militants and national battalions have topped 200,000, and the number of those wounded, often severely wounded people who will never be able to either get employed or return to normal life, is as large," he specified.
According to Rogov, the statement by von der Leyen can be viewed as information about heavy Ukrainian losses made public. "Huge losses that can no longer be hushed up are being legalized. Being more sophisticated in manipulating public opinion, the Europeans are neatly legalizing 100,000 killed Ukrainian troops, while they know only too well that irretrievable losses exceed 200,000 people," Rogov explained.
Earlier on Wednesday, von der Leyen said it was estimated that more than 100,000 Ukrainian military officers and more than 20,000 civilians had been killed since February. The EC also raised its estimate of the damage sustained by Ukraine in the conflict from €385 billion as of late October to €600 billion. The European Commission later deleted the information about 100,000 killed Ukrainians from von der Leyen’s video address and the readout.