Ukraine: 100-200 soldiers die daily, new plea for more arms
Up to 200 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed every day in Russias military onslaught, according to an adviser to Ukraines president and only more and more advanced Western weaponry will turn back the Russian offensive, reduce the casualties and force Moscow to the negotiating table.
Mykhailo Podolyak told the BBC in an interview aired on Thursday that the daily loss of between 100 and 200 Ukrainian soldiers is the result of a complete lack of parity” between Ukraine and Russia, which has thrown pretty much everything non-nuclear at the front” in its bid to advance in Ukraines eastern Donbas region and beyond.
Recently Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put the daily death toll at up to 100, but Podolyak said it had grown.
Ukrainian officials have pointed at the mounting losses to emphasise their demand for more Western weapons, which have been critical to the countrys unexpected success in holding off the larger and better equipped Russian forces.
After a bungled attempt to overrun Kyiv in the early days of the war, Russia shifted its focus to the Donbas region of coal mines and factories. But its progress there has been plodding.
Podolyak said delivery of state-of-the-art artillery systems would not only curb Ukraines death toll, it would help its forces reclaim seized territory.
Theres something really important thing that our partners need to understand, and thats until Russia suffers a serious military defeat, no form of dialogue will be possible, and they will continue to be able to try and take parts of our country, he said.
Podolyak also addressed Western fears that Western rocket launchers in the hands of Ukraines forces would be used to strike targets inside Russia and potentially escalate the conflict to a wider conflagration, saying that it wont happen.” STREET BATTLES The slog in the Donbas continued on Friday, with a Ukrainian governor saying forces are fighting “for every house and every street in Sievierodonetsk, the recent focus of clashes.
Sievierodonetsk is in the last pocket of the Luhansk region that has not yet been claimed by Russia.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai told The Associated Press that Ukrainian forces retain control of the industrial zone on the edge of the city and some other sections, and painstaking block-by-block fighting continues.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that while the situation in the Donbas is static, Ukrainian forces had made some progress in the Zaporizhzhia region in the south, where the Ukrainian troops have been able to spoil the plans of the occupiers. He gave no specifics.
BRITAIN CALLS TRIAL OF ITS CITIZENS A SHAM The British government said Russia must take responsibility for the sham trial of two Britons and a Moroccan who were sentenced to death for fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine.
Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun were convicted by a court run by pro-Moscow separatist authorities in the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic, which is not recognised internationally.
Separatist authorities argued that the men were mercenaries not entitled to the usual protections accorded prisoners of war.
Aslins and Pinners families have said that the two men were long-serving members of the Ukrainian military. Saadouns father told a Moroccan online newspaper that his son is not a mercenary and that he holds Ukrainian citizenship.
Government minister Robin Walker said Friday that it was an illegal court in a sham government but that the UK would use all diplomatic channels to make the case that these are prisoners of war who should be treated accordingly.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is due to speak to her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba later Friday about the case.
The UK has not announced any plans to speak to Russian officials and it does not recognise the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic and will not officially contact the authorities there.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the ministry has so far not received any specific appeals about the men from Britain and as such, we can make an unambiguous conclusion that until now the fate of these citizens was not of interest to London.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
