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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday is mocking statements from Vladimir Putin and Russia claiming its invasion of his country is “going according to plan,” asking how many more troop losses is Moscow willing to endure.
In late March, Russia officially said it has lost 1,351 soldiers in the ongoing war, but Ukraine believes the real number is closer to 20,000, according to Reuters.
“In Russia it was once again said that their so-called ‘special operation’ is supposedly going according to plan. But, to be honest, no one in the world understands how such a plan could even come about,” Zelenskyy said Wednesday in a video address.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday.
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“How could a plan that provides for the death of tens of thousands of their own soldiers in a little more than a month of war come about? Who could approve such a plan?” Zelenskyy added in an apparent swipe at Putin.
The Ukrainian leader then asked how many more troop losses is Moscow willing to suffer, offering a range as high as hundreds of thousands, Reuters reports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech at a rocket assembly factory during his visit to the Vostochny cosmodrome outside the city of Tsiolkovsky on Tuesday. (Evgeny Biyatov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russia’s Ministry of Defense on March 24 tweeted that the operation is “going according to plan.”
Putin reportedly said the same yesterday, but in early April Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted to Sky News that “we have [had] significant losses of troops [in Ukraine] and it’s a huge tragedy for us.”
A damaged Russian tank is seen on a highway to Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday. (AP/Efrem Lukatsky)
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Zelenskyy also said Wednesday that “we must understand that not all Russian tanks are stuck in fields, not all enemy soldiers simply flee the battlefield and not all of them are conscripts who do not know how to hold weapons properly,” according to Reuters.
“This does not mean that we should be afraid of them,” he added. “This means that we must not diminish the accomplishments of our fighters, our army.”