Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Defence, Hanna Malyar, has for the first time given more concrete insights into the losses of the armed forces. Above all, however, she emphasized the losses on the Russian side. Accordingly, the numbers of dead on the Russian side are significantly higher than on the Ukrainian side. "There are days in the East when the ratio of losses (fatalities) is one to ten," she said on Telegram on Wednesday. "Of course, that's not the case every day, and the average ratio is lower, but still."
The Ukrainian military has so far provided no information on its own losses since the beginning of the war over a year ago. On the other hand, daily statistics are published with the alleged losses of the Russian military. Accordingly, the Russian armed forces have so far mourned over 172,000 deaths. Maljar's statements thus provide indirect information about the fallen on the Ukrainian side. "Unfortunately, casualties are an inevitable consequence of war," Maljar wrote. "There is no war without casualties."
The Russian military, for its part, does not provide any information on its own losses. Especially in the Battle of Bakhmut, both sides also fight against each other with information about losses and allegedly or actually missing weapons and ammunition on the other side. For example, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Resnikov said in early March: "There is a difference between Ukrainians and Russians, the Russians use the tactic of the meat grinder, for them their soldiers are just cannon fodder. The losses of the Russians amount to up to 500 killed and injured every day." Conversely, the head of the Wagner mercenaries, Prigozhin, said at the end of this month that the Ukrainian army in Bakhmut was "practically destroyed," but that the "Wagner" units had also suffered "serious damage."