War between Ukraine and Russia A statement by the President of the European Commission, which has since been corrected by her institution, mentioned the number of 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed since the country’s invasion began. An unofficial report in which Kyiv communicates very little about its losses.
Discord Characters. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently announced an EU proposal to set up a special tribunal to try crimes committed by Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began. But it’s one detail of his statement that particularly drew a reaction: the figure of 100,000 killed Ukrainian soldiers, which the President put forward: “It is estimated that more than 20,000 civilians and more than 100,000 Ukrainian servicemen were killed in this way far.”
Roughly edited footage
The problem is that this figure has never been provided by Ukrainian officials. It is probably taken from a poor interpretation of statements made by American General Mark Milley, who estimated on November 10: “We are talking about well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded. And probably the same on the Ukrainian side.” Or Ursula von der Leyen simply named the number of soldiers killed.
A commission spokesman corrects the image material Post a message on Twitter, which was eventually removed from the Commission’s websites. The summoning of the 100,000 dead soldiers was cut from the video, the transcription of the sequence was also roughly edited, without mentioning the correction on the commission’s side. The original version can be found on a saved version of the website, which mentions the estimate of “20,000 civilians and 100,000 Ukrainian military officers killed so far”.
Thanks to those who pointed out the inaccuracy regarding the numbers in a previous version of this video.
The estimate used from external sources should have referred to casualties, ie both dead and injured, and was intended to show Russia’s brutality. https://t.co/GesDe7bK8v
—Dana Spinant (@DanaSpinant) November 30, 2022
The embarrassment does not stem from a simple misinterpretation of this American number: this human toll has never been recognized by Kyiv, which communicates very little on the subject, since the question of the number of soldiers killed is a problem to maintain the morale of its troops , and the topic of daily information conflicts with Russia. The two camps swing with big swings tables and graphs, human balance sheets and more or less phantasmagorical hunting tables (like here or there), behind which it remains difficult to estimate the real magnitudes, as we explained in a previous article.
“Wrong information”
When asked about the subject by CheckNews, the spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also stated that he “was unable to comment on the figures [des pertes] to the extent that such information is classified”. And additionally: “I can only say that Ms. von der Leyen made inaccurate statements citing unofficial external sources, which her team later clarified.” This Ukrainian rejection is not surprising. The figure officially defended by Kyiv is between 10,000 and 13,000 dead, as defended on December 1 by Ukrainian Presidency adviser Mykhaïlo Podoliak on Ukrainian broadcaster Channel 24. A record surprisingly close to that brought forward in June was the counter-offensive with 10,000 dead.
It should be noted that, despite the clumsy denial of the commission, the number of 100,000 killed Ukrainian soldiers is still widely reported in conspiratorial and pro-Russian spheres, especially in Telegram channels. The error is not interpreted as a mistake, but as an admission that would prove Moscow right, even though it is in trouble on the ground.