The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said that Russia may lose over 40,000 soldiers by the end of June.
In a video address released on Sunday, the President said, “The Russian military is trying to deploy reserve troops in Donbas. But what reserves can they speak of currently?
“It seems that they will send poorly trained selectees into the war, as well as those who had been recruited through covert mobilisation efforts. Russian generals believe their people simply as cannon fodder, which they need to assure they outnumber us in army personnel, in military equipment.
“But this only counts up to one thing, that Russian losses in June might surpass 40,000 military personnel. They have not lost as many troops in any of the wars in several decades.”
Zelenskyy went on to say that right now, the most fierce wars between the two warring nations are which is taking place in Sievierodonetsk, a city in the separatist Luhansk region in Donbas, as per reports.
He further said, adding that the Russian military was also advancing on Lysychansk, Bakhmut and Sloviansk, “Ukrainian Defence Forces are fighting for every inch of Ukrainian land.”
While Lysychansk is in Luhansk, both Bakhmut and Sloviansk are in Donestsk, also a part of Donbas.
Meanwhile, the Luhansk region’s military administration said that Russian forces had been relentlessly firing on Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk over the course of Sunday.
It said that a six-year-old child was killed due to Russian shelling, adding that Russian forces were trying to press past the Ukrainian defence line by exerting fierce artillery fire.