Kiev has ‘many killed and wounded’ in the hostilities, the Ukrainian leader has admitted.
A settlement plan to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict should be tabled within the next few months, Vladimir Zelensky has said, claiming Kiev does not actually seek to prolong hostilities for years to come.
He made the remarks on Thursday during a joint press conference with European Council President Charles Michel. Zelensky had traveled to Brussels to sign a security deal with the European Union guaranteeing defense assistance to Kiev, including weapons deliveries and training.
Zelensky used the opportunity to claim that he is not actually seeking to prolong hostilities for years to come.
“Ukraine does not want to prolong the war. We do not want it to last for years,” Zelensky stated, making a rare remark on the extent of damage and casualties suffered during the two and a half-year-long conflict.
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“We have many wounded and killed on the battlefield. We must put a settlement plan on the table within a few months,” he added without providing any exact figures.
Kiev has long kept silent on the casualties it has suffered in the conflict, insisting instead that it has inflicted massive damage on Russian troops. In February of this year, Zelensky claimed as few as 31,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed in the two years of conflict.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Belousov estimated recently that Kiev had lost 35,000 troops in May alone while his predecessor Sergey Shoigu claimed in February that Ukraine had lost more than 440,000 soldiers throughout the conflict.
The extremely heavy losses suffered by the Ukrainian military are implicitly corroborated by the ever-intensifying forced mobilization drive in the country as well as frequently reported attempts by draft dodgers to escape the country.
The recruitment drive, launched early into the conflict, has been growing increasingly violent, with numerous videos circulating online showing enlistment officers snatching would-be recruits in the streets, brawling with them, threatening them with firearms, and subjecting them to other forms of abuse.
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