MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered to the Russian army during the conflict, and the number of Kiev troops killed and wounded stands at more than 1.5 million, retired Major General Leonid Ivlev, deputy of the State Duma (lower house of Russia’s parliament) from the Republic of Crimea, said in an interview with TASS.

"You know, more and more Ukrainians are realizing that supporting the Kiev regime isn’t a war for the homeland. If you count how many Ukrainian soldiers and officers have surrendered to our armed forces, you could assemble two to three motorized rifle divisions from them. And there are even examples of soldiers who surrendered taking the Russian oath and taking up arms against Kiev. These are worthy examples, they exist, and they are not isolated," the expert said.

He added that, according to official sources, around 28,000 enemy armored combat vehicles and over 120,000 drones have been destroyed by Russian troops. "Russian weapons are far superior to those supplied by Western countries to the Ukrainian armed forces. And the losses of the Ukrainian armed forces, if they don’t give it a thought, will continue to mount," Ivlev noted.