Ukraine has lost more than 80,000 soldiers since January: Russia

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed that Ukraine has sent more than 80,000 troops since the beginning of this year. Citing this information, he also said on Tuesday that his country's military was reducing the "fighting capabilities of the enemy."

Defense Minister Shoigu met with senior Russian military officials yesterday. At the time, he said that since January last year, Russian forces had destroyed 14,000 pieces of Ukrainian military equipment, including 1,200 tanks and other armed combat vehicles. At the same time, Moscow has liberated 403 square kilometers of new territory (territory of Ukraine) from Russia, he said.

Despite Kiev's lack of success on the battlefield, Ukraine's leaders are trying to convince Western sponsors of their ability to counter Russian forces, Russia's defense minister said. And to do this, Kiev has launched terrorism targeting civilians and long-range attacks inside Russia.

Pointing out that "our troops are responding asymmetrically to such crimes of Ukrainian forces", Shoigu said that in March alone, Russian forces carried out 190 cluster attacks and two major attacks in Ukraine. These attacks are carried out on the country's military and energy infrastructure using sophisticated weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Ukraine has lost 444,000 military personnel since the war began in February 2022, Russia's Defense Ministry said last month. Among them, 166,000 people were killed in the failed counterattack against Russia in the summer of last year.

But last February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that only 31,000 of their soldiers had been killed since the war with Russia began. But he did not say anything about how many soldiers were injured or missing.