Ukrainian army has destroyed more than 1,000 Russian tanks, Zelensky says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Ukrainian army has already destroyed more than 1,000 Russian tanks, nearly 200 Russian aircraft, and almost 2,500 armored fighting vehicles.
CNN: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Ukrainian army has already destroyed more than 1,000 Russian tanks, nearly 200 Russian aircraft, and almost 2,500 armored fighting vehicles.
Despite these losses, Russian troops still have equipment to launch additional attacks, Zelensky said.
On May 9, Russia plans to hold its traditional Victory Day parade in Red Square, commemorating the German surrender to the Soviet Union in the Second World War.
The Ukrainian President also said Russia has already lost more than 23,000 soldiers since the invasion began. CNN cannot independently verify this claim.
Russia has sporadically released casualty figures that are low and which observers deem to be a massive underestimate. Two days prior to Russia’s update, two senior NATO military officials estimated the number of Russian soldiers killed in action in Ukraine to be between 7,000 and 15,000. Around the same time, other US officials had put Russian losses in a similar range -- between 7,000 and 14,000 Russian soldiers killed -- but they expressed “low confidence” in those estimates.
Earlier in the month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov briefly admitted Russia had suffered “significant” losses of its troops in Ukraine, calling the losses “a huge tragedy” for the country in an interview with Sky News.