Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a joint news conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues April 9, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
April 13 – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday mocked Moscow’s insistence that the war against his nation was going well and questioned how President Vladimir Putin could have approved a plan that would see the deaths of so many Russians.
Putin said Tuesday Russia will achieve all of its “noble” goals and “rhythmically and calmly” proceed with what it calls a special operation. Continue reading
Moscow said on March 25, its latest update, that 1,351 soldiers had been killed since the campaign began. Ukraine says the real number is closer to 20,000.
“In Russia it was once again said that their so-called ‘special operation’ was allegedly going according to plan video address.
“How could a plan come about that envisaged the deaths of tens of thousands of our own soldiers in just over a month of war? Who could approve of such a plan?”
Zelenskyy asked how many dead Russian soldiers are acceptable to Putin and gave a range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
Moscow has lost more men in the 48 days since the war began than in the 10-year war in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, he said.
Zelenskyy said that while some have mocked the Russians for their failures on the field and inferior technology, their opponents are not all hopeless.
“We have to understand that not all Russian tanks are stuck in fields, not all enemy soldiers just flee the battlefield, and not all are conscripts who don’t know how to hold guns properly,” he said.
“That doesn’t mean we should fear them. It means we can’t belittle the achievements of our fighters, our army.”
Reporting by David Ljunggren and Ron Popeski; Editing by Grant McCool