Nine Months of War Against Russia, Ukraine Says 10,000-13,000 Soldiers Killed

Ukrainian military illustration. (Presidentt.gov.ua)

JAKARTA - Adviser to the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak said his country's armed forces have so far lost 10,000 to 13,000 troops in the war against Russia.

It was the first statement of death toll estimates since August when the chief of Ukraine's armed forces said nearly 9,000 of his soldiers died in combat.

"We have official figures from the general staff, we have official figures from the supreme command, and the numbers are (between) 10,000 and 12,500 to 13,000 dead", Podolyak told the Kanal 24 channel.

"We are open to discussing the death toll", he added, saying more soldiers were injured than killed.

Last month the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley estimated that more than 100,000 Russian troops died during the war, with Ukrainian casualties estimated at the same.

Meanwhile in a video interview Wednesday, another adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Oleksiy Arestovych said the number of Russian soldiers who died was seven times the number of Ukrainian soldiers who died.

Last August, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, gave his first estimate of the death toll of nearly 9,000 troops since the Russian invasion on February 24.