Ukraine: 'Russia is losing too' says President Zelensky

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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky skewered Vladimir Putin-led Russian troops’ attempt to invade the whole of Ukraine in a wide-ranging interview with NBC. As the Ukrainian war is grinding to a halt, the death toll on both the Russian and the Ukrainian side continues to climb. Though the exact number of casualties is difficult to estimate, a majority of reports show that Russian forces are suffering a higher death toll than Ukrainian forces.

President Zelensky confirmed the numbers on NBC, saying: “Where we lose one tank, they lose five tanks.  That’s how we are fighting. But you have to be fair and admit that it’s difficult for us.

“One has to understand that it is not only we who are losing. Russia is losing too. Where we lose one person, Russia loses five people.”

According to Ukraine officials’ estimates, 35,000 Russian soldiers have died since the beginning of the war while Ukraine has only deplored 10,000 deaths.

Senior Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak told the BBC that the number of Ukrainian death on the frontline ranged from 100 to 200 a day.

While the exact death toll remains unknown, officials and reports have shown higher figures in recent weeks, as Ukrainian forces struggle to hold the line in the eastern Donbas region.

The Donbas has now become the epicentre of the war where Russian forces are concentrating their efforts after failing to capture the capital Kyiv. Russian troops had failed to make significant advances in the region since they started fighting in 2014.

President Putin then justified the attack by bringing up a conspiracy, claiming President Zelensky’s neo-Nazi regime was killing Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas.

President Zelensky rejected the conspiracy used by Putin’s regime to justify assaults in the Donbas region in 2014 and the whole of Ukraine in late February.

“They have been demonising Ukraine by saying there are Nazis here. What Nazis? They know that my family is Jewish, I have Jewish blood and that my family was tortured by the Nazis during World War II,” he said.

On his hope for a potential post-war Ukraine, Zelensky said Ukraine will come out stronger and “united.”

“After me, there will be a united Ukraine, a united people. And that’s what’s happening. Our people are no longer divided by where they come from, be it from the west, from the centre, or from the Donbas. We’re all united.

“And this war has united us, that’s true.”

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Fear is now mounting over a potential spill-over of the war beyond Ukraine’s borders. Finland Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told CNN that war in Europe is “of course a possibility.” 

“And that’s why it’s so important to support Ukraine at the moment,” he said.

“They can maintain the situation and in that sense, they can win this battle. I think they are of course morally on the high ground. They are very united.”

“They need our support,” he added.

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