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Up to 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed or wounded per day in Donbas, official says 

Ukraine is suffering up to 1,000 killed or wounded per day in Donbas, declared the faction leader of the Servant of the People party and head of the Ukrainian delegation at the Russia-Ukraine talks David Arakhamia, reports a news website Axios. 

According to him, from 200 to 500 Ukrainian soldiers die in eastern Ukraine every day, while the number of wounded is “way bigger”.

On 1 June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that between 60 and 100 Ukrainian servicemen were killed every day, and up to 500 were injured. On 10 June, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Zelensky, said that from 100 to 200 Ukrainian soldiers were killed every day during the war. Arakhamia clarified that the number had become significantly bigger in the last two weeks.

Ukraine counts one million people in its army at the moment and could recruit two more million, so the country will keep fighting, he added.

Arakhamia noted that even though the official talks have been suspended, he and his team speak with their Russian colleagues on the phone “once or twice a week”, despite the fact that “both sides clearly understand that right now there’s no space for negotiations.”

There has been a negative reaction to the idea of negotiations with Russia ever since it had committed war crimes in Bucha and Mariupol, continued Arakhamia. However, he added that the war should end with “a compromise”, reports Axios.

On 11 June, Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that since the start of the war, Ukraine has lost approximately 10,000 soldiers. At the same time, neither Ukraine nor Russia announces the casualties among their servicemen on a regular basis. The Russian Defence Ministry only provided a casualty count twice since the start of the war: on 2 March and on 25 March. According to the latest report of the Russian Defence Ministry, 1,351 Russian servicemen were killed in Ukraine, and 3,825 were injured. 

It is impossible to verify the information on casualties provided by the warring sides during an ongoing conflict.