Ukraine has calculated that between 10,000 and 13,000 of its soldiers have died in the war since the invasion started by Russia on February 24, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Thursday.
In an interview on local television Channel 24, the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine stated that the “official estimates of the General Staff” they are “from 10,000 to 12,500 or 13,000 dead,” reports the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform.
“We are talking openly about the number of deaths,” Podoliak stated in the television interview, in which he assured that the figure of one hundred thousand deaths offered on November 30 by the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was “erroneous”.
More than 1,300 prisoners released
On the other hand, the president of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelensky, assured this Thursday that during the war more than 1,300 Ukrainian prisoners have been released by the Russians. The president announced the figure during his usual nocturnal speech, referring to the release of another 50 soldiers seized by Russia.
The last released are four officers and 46 sergeants and privates of the Army, territorial defense, national guards, Navy and border guards, according to Zelenski. “We will bring the rest! All Ukraine will be free. All Ukrainians will be at home,” the president said.
Russia and Ukraine 50 prisoners were exchanged this Thursday of war on each side, as reported respectively by the Russian Defense Ministry and the Ukrainian Presidential Office.