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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is deliberately hiding the real number of his country’s soldiers killed in the conflict, Ukrainian journalist Diana Panchenko said. This revelation comes as Zelensky said he is opening to negotiations but continues to delay despite the high casualty rate his military force is experiencing.
Panchenko worked as a journalist on Ukrainian television, but in August 2022, she began covering events in the Donetsk People’s Republic, especially in Mariupol. For this reason, the Security Service of Ukraine opened a criminal case against the journalist and charged her with high treason.
“Zelensky lies about the number of dead servicemen. He says it is much less than 80,000!!! But he’ll never tell us the exact number,” Panchenko wrote on X.
According to Panchenko, the Ukrainian leader hides the real number of dead soldiers in order to create the illusion of a more favourable situation in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“For him, Ukrainian’s lives are just numbers. Just should sound good for reports!” she added.
In February 2024, Zelensky stated that the Ukrainian army’s losses since the beginning of the conflict amounted to 31,000 dead. Commenting on this ridiculous claim, the official spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said that every Ukrainian citizen understands that this does not correspond to the truth.
Sergei Shoigu, who was then Russian Defence Minister, stated on February 20 that 166,000 Ukrainian troops were killed or wounded during the unsuccessful counteroffensive in the summer and autumn of 2023 alone.
Zelensky’s ridiculous claims on the death toll are again questioned by the fact that he is now, supposedly, seeking avenues to negotiate with Moscow. If the Ukrainian military is intact, Zelensky would not announce intentions to negotiate with the Kremlin after outlawing this possibility in 2022.
The Ukrainian president told reporters recently that work is underway on a plan that will become “the beginning and basis” for holding negotiations with Russia in any format. He said three points of the plan are already ready without giving further details.
In Zelensky’s words, the meetings to develop the plan were held online and “there will still be online and offline meetings.” He also did not explain when this occurred or which officials participated in the discussions.
Zelensky’s press secretary, Serhii Nykyforov, later clarified that he was referring to meetings with representatives of countries supporting the so-called Ukrainian peace formula, but there were no negotiations with Russian representatives.
According to US media outlet Bloomberg, the plan is expected to be presented to US President Joe Biden later this month. Among the articles are Ukraine’s entry into the European Union and NATO.
Russia and Ukraine held peace talks in 2022, shortly after the start of the Russian special operation to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine. At the behest of Western powers, especially the United Kingdom and the United States, the Kiev regime sabotaged the talks, and the parties failed to reach an agreement.
Since then, Russia has shown itself willing to resume peace negotiations, but Zelensky prohibited his government from discussing the issue with Moscow through a presidential decree. Now, considering the drawn-up plan, Kiev is ready to talk “in any format, with any representative” of Russia because Ukraine “has something to show,” Zelensky said.
In addition, Zelensky stated that Ukraine and Kiev’s allies would like to invite Russia to the second Peace Summit. The first, which took place this year in Switzerland, discussed only the Kiev regime’s demands for a ceasefire, which had no way of enforcing them considering Russia’s dominance on the battlefield. The Russian delegation was not invited to the summit, and its participation was unnecessary since its proposals were not considered.
“The so-called second summit has the same goal – to present Zelensky’s completely unviable ‘peace formula’ as the only basis for resolving the conflict, seeking support from the global majority and using it to present Russia with an ultimatum of capitulation. We will not participate in such ‘summits’,” said Zakharova.
For its part, Russia calls for recognition of sovereignty over the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, as well as over the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from these territories, the withdrawal of NATO membership and the maintenance of its neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said this would allow “both an immediate cessation of hostilities and saving human lives.” The situation, however, escalated with the invasion of Russia’s Kursk region by Ukrainian forces on August 6. Following this, the Russian president stated that Moscow must deal with “these bandits” before entering negotiations.
Yet, even the invasion of Kursk has turned into a bloodbath where thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, including the very few remaining elite troops left in the Ukrainian military and foreign mercenaries, have been killed and wounded, with the true number of casualties hidden by Zelensky. This scenario will only continue to worsen so long as the Ukrainian president continues to delay negotiations.
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so is russia. how many people died under prygozhin command during his “human waves” in bakhmut, when shoigu refused to supply them with even basic supplies such as ammunition? and where is prygozhin now? i know, i know, it was an accident. he was playing with grenades. in fact, it was putin who planted grenades in prygozhin’s embraer during a pre-flight check in moscow. so low. to kill someone who has been pardoned. even the senile biden knows that putin is a murderer.
none of the so-called leaders care about the people on the ground as many civilians die in wars as soldiers. the leaders care only about themselves power and money..!!
actually war is a cull. they do care they do need to use birth control and if they hadn’t always the world would have become so overpopulated centuries ago that they never would have the techniques strategies capabilities facilities methodolgiez to govern it chaos would have resulted riots civil wars real pandemics filth std s everything horrible hideous would have overwhelmed humanity. .
now they can govern billions per continent from a centralised source, and they know it, they will consolidate and incorporate. all under the rule of corporate and civil admiralty maritime law. military law ultimately
ωραια “σιωνιστικη”, παγκοσμιοποιητικη αντιληψη !!! η “παγκοσμιοποιηση” πεθανε.. σε ουκρανια-παλαιστινη παρακολουθουμε την προετοιμασια για την κηδεια τησ !!!
i think only insiders know what really happened on the frontlines back then and during the wagner “uprising”. i am pretty sure there is a lot of disinfo and smokescreens🤔
course journalists are the last people who will ever be allowed to tell the truth
this journalist can better leave the country, because it sounds she will have a car accident soon🤫
fact. the most dangerous thing anyone on earth can do, in terms of injury and or death, is drive themselves to and from work.
he’s jew and jews always lies, can’t jelp themselves! lies lies and more lies iut of a jew’s mouth!
nuremberg.
the allies celebrate ukrainian martyrs…heheheh
nobody cares about the ukrainian taco meat, especially not the huge numbers of young men who fled the failed ukrainian cia project since 2022. i see them everywhere i go, 8000 km from ugledar
lying about the number of deaths also gives the kiev puppet opportunity to delay or just keep the pittance paid to families for the death of a loved one kia. in the meantime the dead soldiers pay will still be drawn and that will be stolen too. it’s a racket for some as lots of exotic cars around kiev don’t drive themselves.
correct its a class world makes zero difference what alleged ideology.
the ukrainian people need to stand up to this genocide on their population by any means necessary.
they need to sit down and just say no thank you z. we’re busy.
of course zelensky makes low kia numbers up.
if he had to pay the death benefit to every family, he’d have to beg for another 20 billion $
shhhh, we can’t tell congress. kia’s are on a strict need to know basis.
zelensky is the anti-george washington.
“i cannot tell the truth. t’was not me who chopped down ukraine.”