The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced an unconfirmed figure of the losses of the Ukrainian army, causing chaos in Ukraine and the world.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the loss of 100,000 Ukrainian troops. When, in other words, a controversial assessment of 100,000 dead soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine spread on Ukrainian and world news feeds, the press service of the European Commission corrected von der Leyen’s speech. Both from the text and from the video of the speech of the European official, the proposal about the losses of Ukraine was withdrawn.
what did he say
On November 30, the video and text of a new speech by Ursula von der Leyen was published on the official pages of the European Commission. This should be an important step in supporting Ukraine: the head of the European Commission proposed the creation of a special court to investigate crimes in Russia. According to him, although the EU continues to support the efforts of the International Criminal Court in The Hague in this direction, the European Commission has called for the creation of a separate tribunal for Russia – a special court supported by UN “to investigate and prosecute” crimes committed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine.
Giving examples of such crimes, von der Leyen mentioned the tragedy of Bucha, and also – in the first version of the speech – outlined Ukraine’s losses in the war as follows: “According to estimates, more than 20 thousand civilians and 100 thousand military of Ukraine.” The head of the European Commission did not specify the source of such estimates. After the hype appeared, this sentence was simply cut into von der Leyen’s speech.
Subsequently, Dana Spinant, head of political communications for the European Commission and deputy press secretary of this body, commented on such changes.
“Many thanks to those who pointed out the inaccuracy of the numbers in the previous version of this video,” he wrote of von der Leyen’s speech. – The estimate used from external sources must be related to losses [англ. casualitites]that is, both dead and wounded, and intended to show the brutality of Russia.
Reaction to Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelensky will release official death tolls “when the moment is right,” his press office said, because it is sensitive information.
“We cannot confirm this figure. We emphasize that the losses of the Ukrainian army are official information and under the heading with a restriction on disclosure. At the same time, if the announced by the head of the European Commission makes it possible to bring the aggressor country to justice, we can only support actions that will contribute to legal punishment for those who committed the genocide of the Ukrainian people,” said Bogdan Senik, head of the Public Relations Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Not a laneagain
The words of the head of the European Commission may be related to the recent statement of General Mark Milley, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the United States.
On November 9, Milli reported that Russian military losses in Ukraine exceeded 100,000 dead and wounded and noted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered almost the same losses. This figure has been circulating in the American media ever since. Specifically, a new New York Times report from Bakhmut on November 27 stated: “United States Defense Department officials estimate that Russia and Ukraine have each lost approximately 100,000 wounded and killed during the war, although these numbers cannot be verified.”
The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, who commented on Mark Milli’s assessment, did not confirm this figure. “From the Russian side, we confirmed it 100%. From our side, it is not completely true,” he said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the losses of the Russians exceeded the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine 10 times.
Including the wounded
“If the irreparable loss of the dead is really 100 thousand soldiers in total, then the health loss – that is, the wounded, must be at least three times greater, that is, more than 400 thousand . This is a staff strength of about 100 brigades. That is, more than Ukraine deployed in combat power at all. Therefore, such numbers do not correspond to the real state, “said the observer of the military Yuri Butusov.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.