AFU servicemen. File photoWASHINGTON, Apr 16Ukrainian forces during the Russian special military operation lost up to three thousand people dead and about ten thousand wounded, Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN. In an interview, most of which was translated into English, he found it difficult to name the number of civilian casualties, citing a lack of information from the «blockaded» territories of the south and east. «As for our troops. Based on the numbers that we have, we believe that we lost from 2.5 thousand to 3 thousand … Such a ratio. We have about 10 thousand wounded. It is difficult to say How many of them will survive,» Zelensky said. Kyiv last reported losses on March 12. Then Zelensky said that about 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers were killed. Aleksey Arestovich, an adviser to the head of Zelensky's office, stated at the end of March that Ukraine does not talk about the losses of its army, since this is a military secret. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation at the end of March reported that since the beginning of the special operation, the losses of the Ukrainian army amounted to more than 14 thousand killed and about 16 thousand wounded. Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» bloody crimes against civilians» of Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and, on March 25, they completed the main tasks of the first stage — they significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
