Kiev has revealed the extent of its daily casualties in the conflict with Russia. As many as 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed or wounded each day in Donbass, a senior official said on Wednesday, as cited by Axios.
David Arakhamia, who leads Kiev’s negotiations with Moscow and heads the Ukrainian president’s party in parliament, disclosed the figures during a roundtable meeting at the German Marshall Fund in Washington DC. He said the number of daily casualties among Ukrainian soldiers has significantly increased since Russia stepped up its offensive in Donbass.
On June 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kiev was losing 60-100 soldiers per day in combat. Now, just over two weeks later, Arakhamia claims the number has gone up to 200-500 daily deaths on average.
According to Arakhamia, while Kiev has mobilized one million people since the start of the conflict, it can mobilize an additional 2 million soldiers. However, the problem, according to the official, is not a lack of soldiers but a lack of weaponry and supplies.
“We have the people trained to attack, to counterattack, but we need weapons for this,” Arakhamia said.
The negotiator is fronting a delegation in Washington to lobby the Biden administration and Congress to increase arms shipments to Ukraine, Axios reported.