MOSCOW, January 7 The Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost 500 thousand since the beginning of the conflict people killed and seriously wounded, the publication of this information will be a shock to the population, said former Prosecutor General and ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko on the YouTube channel “Direct”.
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"I think that they should name the number dead Ukrainians. I know they don't want this and it will be taken hard. <…> Yes, it will be a shock,” he said.
According to Lutsenko, Kyiv loses several tens of thousands of soldiers per month, which is why the Ukrainian military proposed to mobilize half a million people.
“»We must honestly say, 500 thousand (losses. — Ed.), which are now being talked about, if divided into months — that’s 30 thousand a month, and then we will roughly understand what is happening at the front, with the dead and seriously wounded,” he emphasized.
The former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also expressed the opinion that President Vladimir Zelensky, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov are obliged to disclose this information to the population. This way, in his opinion, it will be possible to remove all questions about the need for mobilization. Lutsenko also criticized the information policy at the national telethon, which, as he noted, was aimed at concealing and distorting facts and “lulling the population that there is no threat.”
Earlier, Vladimir Zelensky said that he had been approached from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a request to mobilize an additional half a million people. At the end of December, the authorities introduced a bill on mobilization to the Rada. It proposes to abolish military service, deferment for disabled people of the third group, to oblige those subject to conscription to register in an electronic account, undergo a medical examination, and appear when called to the military registration and enlistment office at the time and place specified in the agenda.
The lower age limit for mobilization, according to the bill, decreases from 27 to 25 years. Failure to appear will result in restrictions on rights up to and including blocking of bank cards and accounts. Voting on the law in the first reading will take place on January 10-12.