Ukraine War: That happened on Saturday night

Created: 06/11/2022, 08:08

By: Diana Rissmann

Ukraine has published the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed so far in the war.

Russian attacks continue unabated.

That happened in the night.

Kyiv - An advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyj made the number public on Saturday night (June 11).

Accordingly, around 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a good three and a half months of the Ukraine war.

Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych mentioned this number in one of his regular YouTube video interviews with the Russian opposition leader Mark Feygin.

Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said this week that up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers are currently being killed every day.

Arestovych emphasized that on the Ukrainian side, even at the beginning of the war, around 100 military personnel died every day.

When Feygin asked whether one could assume that around 10,000 soldiers were killed in total, he replied: "Yes, roughly." The German Press Agency (dpa) reports.

So far, neither Ukraine nor Russia have provided exhaustive information on the losses in the Ukraine conflict that developed into a war on February 24.

Selenskyj last spoke of up to 3,000 soldiers killed in a CNN interview in mid-April.

Fictitious or real victims in the Ukraine war?

In view of the constantly evolving situation at the front, reports from both the Ukrainian and Russian sides can hardly ever be checked independently.

In the meantime, the fighting in eastern Ukraine continues without major changes in the course of the front - the city of Sievjerodonetsk is under constant fire.

The Ukrainian side speaks of the success of their artillery thanks to Western ammunition - and appeals to increase the pace of arms deliveries.

“Russia wants to destroy every city in Donbass, every one is no exaggeration.

Like Volnovakha, like Mariupol," said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his video address on Friday evening.

"All these ruins in once happy cities, black marks from fires, craters from explosions - that's all Russia can give to its neighbors, Europe and the world." Still, the Ukrainian president said in a video message last week that Russia has not yet achieved "a breakthrough" in eastern Ukraine, as the dpa reports.

Urgent call for faster arms shipments to Ukraine

According to Arestovych, more Russian than Ukrainian soldiers are constantly being killed.

On Friday, Ukrainian artillery attacks using Western ammunition were particularly efficient, he said, giving an estimate of around 600 Russian soldiers killed.

In view of this, the Zelenskyj adviser appealed to the West to deliver arms and ammunition much more quickly.

The Ukrainian government is very grateful for the help so far, without which it would probably have been pushed back behind the Dnipro River.

But he doesn't understand the slowness of the deliveries.

In order to beat back Russian aggression, Ukraine needs, among other things, more artillery firepower, stressed Arestovytch.

Two National Guardsmen visit the grave of a deceased soldier at the Kharkiv cemetery in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine puts the number of soldiers killed so far in the war at 10,000.

(Archive image) © Bernat Armangue/dpa

Zelenskyy: The future of Ukraine will now be decided on the battlefield

Selenskyj himself is also pressing the West for faster arms deliveries.

The Ukrainian government is preparing for reconstruction, he said in his daily video address.

But the current "difficult" battles will decide how soon that time will come.

And the Ukrainian troops could only stop the advance of the Russian military as well as their weapons would allow them.

Mariupol Mayor Boichenko: Russians are tearing down houses with dead people

The mayor, Vadym Boichenko, who was driven out of Mariupol by Russian troops, has accused the occupiers of demolishing apartment buildings in the city without first recovering the bodies of the dead residents.

The dead would be taken away with the rubble, Boitschenko wrote on Friday in the Telegram news service.

In the port city, which had been besieged by Russian troops for weeks, 1,300 buildings were destroyed and 50 to 100 people are believed to have died under each of the multi-story houses.

The information could not be independently verified.

Ukrainian authorities estimated the number of civilians killed in Mariupol at up to 20,000 before it was captured by Russian troops.

Russia issues Russian passports in Ukrainian territory

Russia continues its attempts to tie occupied Ukrainian territories closer to itself.

In the parts of the Zaporizhia region controlled by Russian troops, Russian passports are to be handed out from Saturday.

The recipients would then be considered full citizens of Russia, a member of the occupation authorities Vladimir Rogov told Rossiya-24 TV channel.

According to him, more than 70,000 people have applied there.

President Vladimir Putin simplified the procedure for obtaining Russian passports in May.

Russia also distributes them in other occupied territories and introduces the ruble there as a means of payment.

Ukrainian authorities accuse the occupiers of forcing people into Russian citizenship and fear an annexation of the occupied territories.

According to Arestovych, a Russian general who was supposed to hold a referendum on annexation to Russia was killed in the occupied territory of Cherson.

(you with dpa)