Zelensky admits Ukraine suffers painful losses as Russia is 20 times stronger

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine suffered "painful losses" in the Donbass and Kharkiv region.

“The most brutal battles take place in Severodonetsk, as well as in all settlements nearby, as before. Unfortunately, there are losses, and they are painful,” he admitted, adding that the same situation was developing in the Kharkiv region.

On June 11, Aleksey Arestovich, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, for the first time since the beginning of the Russian special operation, spoke about the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in numbers. According to him, at the beginning of the conflict, an average of 100 people per day would be killed. Since the beginning of the special operation, the Ukrainian forces have lost about 10,000 soldiers, he added.

On June 13, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov acknowledged that due to the high losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Kyiv was sending untrained young soldiers to front lines, The Economist wrote. The publication noted that in order to replace the dead fighters, Kyiv was sending untrained Ukrainians from volunteer units to combat zones. According to the Ukrainian Defence Minister, such a development was "inevitable."

On June 9, Reznikov stated that the Ukrainian army was losing up to a hundred fighters daily.

"Every day, we lose up to 100 of our fighters in killed and up to 500 in wounded," the Defence Minister of Ukraine said. 

The same day, The Independent received a US intelligence report about the special operation. US analysts said that the situation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was catastrophic. The Ukrainian military suffer heavy losses, fighters abandon their positions or surrender, the report said. The document also said that the Russian military had a twenty-fold advantage over Ukraine in the number of artillery and multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS). The Armed Forces of Ukraine are running out of ammo in the Donbass, the report added. 

Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of the National Center for Defense Control of Russia, has repeatedly stated that Russia guarantees life and proper treatment of the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine if they surrender.

“The Russian Federation guarantees compliance with all the norms of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, similarly to what happened to those who had previously surrendered in Mariupol,” he said referring to the Ukrainian military who surrendered at the Azot plant in Severodonetsk.

On June 14, Russia and Ukraine held another exchange of bodies of dead servicemen. The parties exchanged 56 bodies, war correspondent Irina Kuksenkova said. According to her, the exchange took place on the line of contact in the Zaporozhye region.