So far, the Ukrainian leadership has not given any concrete numbers when it comes to the victims of the Russian war of aggression.
(Photo: dpa)
Kyiv/ Moscow The Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has given an indication of the approximate amount of own losses since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression. “I can’t give you an exact figure, but I can assure you that it’s lower than the death toll from the earthquake in Turkey,” Reznikov said in an interview with Spanish newspaper La Razón published on Sunday. According to Turkish information, more than 50,000 people died in the February 6 earthquake in the south-east of the country.
So far, the Ukrainian leadership has not given any official information on the number of wounded and killed in its own armed forces. Only estimates exist for the total number of Ukrainian victims. Kyiv treats the numbers as a state secret. Moscow also does not provide any information on its own losses. The Ukrainian side estimates that 182,000 Russian soldiers were killed.
Kiev: Dozens of Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine
According to the General Staff in Kiev, Russian troops carried out dozens of attacks against positions of Ukrainian defenders in the east of the country over the weekend. The attackers suffered heavy losses, the Ukrainian army command said in its daily situation report on Sunday. A total of 45 Russian attacks were repelled around Bakhmut and Marjinka. Despite the large number of Russian attacks, the front line remained unchanged. The information could not be independently verified.
Death toll after rocket hit in Sloviansk
After a Russian missile hit a residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, the death toll has risen to 15. This was announced by the military administration on Telegram on Sunday. In addition, 24 people were injured in the attack.
According to Ukrainian sources, the rocket hit the city in the heavily contested Donetsk region on Friday afternoon. Regardless of the many civilian casualties, the Russian side has maintained that it has only attacked military targets since the war began more than a year ago.
Russia and China emphasize military cooperation
During his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, China’s Defense Minister Li Shangfu highlighted the “very strong ties” between the two countries. “They are better than the military and political alliances of the Cold War era,” Li said in the Kremlin on Sunday. In addition, Russian-Chinese relations are “very stable”. “Recently, cooperation between Russia and China in the military and technical sphere has developed very well. It is a contribution to global and regional security,” Li was quoted as saying by the Russian state agency Tass. Putin assessed the military cooperation between China and Russia as a strengthening of “strategic and trusting relations”.
The Chinese defense minister praises his country’s “stable relationship” with Russia.
(Photo: AP)
Due to the invasion of neighboring Ukraine and the resulting break with the West, Putin is trying to win over China as a strong partner. China presents itself as neutral in the war. However, Western countries accuse the government in Beijing of tacitly supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
US Secretary Yellen: Russia must pay for damage in Ukraine
According to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Russia should take financial responsibility for the destruction in Ukraine. “I think Russia should pay for the damage it has done to Ukraine,” Yellen said on US television on Sunday. However, she reacted reluctantly to Ukraine’s demand for the confiscation of Russian assets. “It’s something we’re discussing with our partners. But you know there are legal restrictions on what we can do with frozen Russian assets.”
During the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky called for the assets of the Russian central bank to be confiscated. “Russia must feel the full price for its aggression,” he said via video.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war:
What will be important on Monday
The G7 foreign ministers continued their talks in Japan on Monday with deliberations on China’s increasingly aggressive drive for power in the Indo-Pacific, the Russian war in Ukraine and the status of the nuclear negotiations with Iran.
More: Current news on the development of the Ukraine war can be found in our news blog