- Zelensky says 2,500-3,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed
- He said about 20,000 Russian soldiers had been killed
- Ukraine says street fighting continues in Mariupol
- Russian Moscow – the largest ship sunk in war in 40 years
- Industrial site in Kyiv
Kyiv, April 16 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said about 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in seven weeks of war with Russia and about 10,000 had been wounded.
There are no civilian casualties, he told CNN on Friday.
He said 19,000 to 20,000 Russian soldiers had been killed during the war, now in its eighth week. Moscow said last month that 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed and 3,825 wounded.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
I’m registering
Reuters could not independently verify the numbers of both sides.
Fighting in Mariupol has been intense as Ukraine says it is trying to break Russia’s siege of the southeastern port city. Home to 400,000 people before the Russian invasion, Mariupol was turned into ruins. Thousands of civilians have died and tens of thousands remain trapped. Read more
“The situation in Mariupol is difficult and difficult. The fighting is ongoing. The Russian army is constantly calling for additional units to storm the city,” Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Motuzyanik told a briefing. He said the Russians had not completely conquered it.
Russia has said it has struck what it describes as a factory on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv, which makes and repairs anti-ship missiles, following the sinking of Moscow, the flagship of Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet, on Thursday.
Ukraine said one of its missiles caused Moscow to sink, a powerful symbol of its resistance to a better armed enemy. Moscow said the ship sank while being towed into a stormy sea after a fire caused by an explosion of ammunition, and that more than 500 sailors were evacuated.
The United States believes that “Moscow” was hit by two Ukrainian missiles and that there are Russian victims, although the figures are unclear, said a senior US official.
None of the assessments can be verified independently.
“SIGNIFICANT” VICTORIES
Zelenski said the military situation in the south and east was “still very difficult”, while praising the work of his armed forces.
The graves of Ukrainian soldiers killed during the Joint Forces operation in the country’s eastern regions appear to have been damaged, according to a local Orthodox priest, by a Russian tank shell as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues at a cemetery in Chernihiv, Ukraine. April 2022 REUTERS / Sergey Nuzhnenko
Read more
“The success of our military on the battlefield is indeed significant, historically significant. But it is still not enough to clear our land of occupiers. We will beat them more,” he said in a late-night video address, urging allies to send heavier weapons and an international embargo on Russian oil.
Zelensky called on US President Joe Biden to designate Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” by joining North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Syria, the Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the conversation. Read more
A White House spokesman said: “We will continue to consider all options to increase pressure on Putin.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmihal and senior financial officials will attend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington next week, sources told Reuters.
This will be the first chance for key Ukrainian officials to meet in person with financial officials from developed economies since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Read more
HOLDING IN MARIUPOL
If Moscow takes over Mariupol, it will be the first big city to fall.
Russia’s defense ministry says it has taken over the city’s Ilyich steel plant. The report could not be confirmed. Ukrainian defenders are believed to be staying mainly in Azovstal, another huge steel mine. Read more
Both plants are owned by Metinvest, the empire of Ukraine’s richest businessman and the backbone of Ukraine’s industrial east – which told Reuters on Friday it would never allow its businesses to operate under Russian occupation. Read more
Moscow is using its naval power to blockade Ukrainian ports and threaten a potential landing on the coast. Without Moscow, the largest warship sunk by Argentine General Belgrano in the 1982 Falklands War, its ability to threaten Ukraine from the sea could be crippled.
Russia initially described its goals in Ukraine as a “special military operation” to disarm its neighbor and defeat the nationalists there.
After its invasion forces were driven from the outskirts of Kyiv this month, Moscow said its main goal in the war was to take over Donbass, the eastern region partly held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014.
Kyiv and its Western allies say these are false excuses for an unprovoked aggressive war that has driven a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million people from their homes and killed thousands.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
I’m registering
Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Edited by William Mallard
Our standards: Thomson Reuters’ principles of trust.
Add Comment