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About 700,000 troops are currently deployed in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin said this Friday.
“We have almost 700,000 men in special military operations,” Putin said, using the official term to describe the ongoing war, televised alongside soldiers decked out in their weapons.
In December, Putin put the number of troops at 617,000.
The announcement comes as Russia launched a major offensive in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine in May.
A Russia did not mention its human losses In a military attack on Ukrainian soil.
The last known figure, as of September 2022, put 5,937 soldiers dead in the war, but several independent analyzes and Western intelligence services estimate these losses to be at least in the tens of thousands.
As Ukraine struggles to mobilize after more than two years of deadly and destructive fighting, Russia has the advantage in front-line numbers, particularly in terms of operational personnel.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February estimated his country’s military losses at 31,000 dead.
Zelensky honored the fallen soldiers at a ceremony with the leaders of the European Union, Italy, Canada and Belgium.
Vladimir Putin set Ukraine’s de facto capitulation as a condition for talks with Kiev this Friday, ahead of a summit in Switzerland devoted to ways to achieve peace, Russia has been excluded, while Zelenskiy has rejected what he considered. An ultimatum in the style of Hitler, the leader of the Nazi regime.
A Russia occupies practically all of Luhansk and large parts of the Donetsk region, as well as the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.
Since Russia invaded the country on February 24, 2022, Ukraine has relied on financial and military aid from Western allies.
Kiev’s allies have also enacted sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy to try to limit Moscow’s ability to finance the war effort in Ukraine.
The conflict, now in its third year, has destroyed critical infrastructure in many parts of Ukraine.
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