“Thirty-one thousand Ukrainian military personnel have been killed in this war. Not 300,000, not 150,000, not whatever Putin and his deceitful circle have been lying about. But nevertheless, each of these losses is a great sacrifice for us.”

Ukraine is currently experiencing a variety of setbacks in its mission to drive Russia from its territory after a counter-offensive failed to make headway before Christmas, with opposing forces now entrenched along the 1000-kilometre frontline. Last week, it was announced that troops had withdrawn from the key eastern town of Avdiivka, which was one of Moscow’s biggest wins in months.

Zelensky also needs to find about 500,000 recruits this year but has so far stopped short of a conscription effort and warned the country had reached the hardest stage for maintaining unity which was crucial for the war effort.

“Now is the most difficult moment for our unity, and if we all fall apart, from the outside and God forbid inside, then this will be the weakest moment. It has not happened yet,” he said.

Although Ukraine has mobilised some civilians to fight, the initial wave of troops at the start of the war in 2022 was overwhelmingly made up of volunteers. The average age of the country’s soldiers is now 43, with most of them having had no rest from fighting since the start of the war two years ago.

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Russia has provided few official casualty figures, with recent data from its Defence Ministry, published in January 2023, pointing to more than 6000 deaths. However, a US intelligence report declassified in December last year estimated 315,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded in Ukraine. If accurate, the figure would represent 87 per cent of the roughly 360,000 troops Russia had before the war, according to the report.

Independent Russian news outlet Mediazona said on Saturday that about 75,000 Russian men died fighting in the war.

Kyiv’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov also spoke at the event, emphasising that some 50 per cent of Western arms deliveries to Ukraine had not arrived on time. Zelensky had previously said that was one of the reasons the highly anticipated counter-offensive did not start earlier.

Zelensky also suggested that plans for Kyiv’s long-awaited counter-offensive last year had been leaked to Russia ahead of time, without providing any other details on how the information was passed on.

“Our counter-offensive action plans were on the Kremlin’s table before the counter-offensive actions began,” Zelensky said, adding that his military chiefs were preparing “several plans” for this year’s battlefield strategy “because of information leaks”.

Western leaders travelled to Kyiv at the weekend in a show of solidarity on the war anniversary, with both Italy and Canada announcing security deals with Ukraine in a boost of support until the country can join NATO.

With Reuters

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