Official/Real: Russians Lose 1351 Dead, 3825 Wounded in Ukie War

New Delhi: As Moscow’s invasion of Kiev continues, the deputy head of Russia’s military general staff has said 1,351 Russian soldiers have died in Ukraine.

He added that around 3,825 Russian soldiers have been wounded, PTI reported citing AP.

Earlier, Colonel Alexei Sharov became the latest high-ranking Russian official to die in what has become the country’s biggest loss of military higher-ups since World War II, Daily Mail reported.

Colonel Sharov, the commander of the 810th Guards Separate Order of Zhukov Brigade in the Russian Marines, was reportedly killed in Mariupol.

Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities said about 300 people were killed in the Russian airstrike last week that blasted open a Mariupol theatre.

Ukrainian officials told news agency AFP that hundreds of people, including children, were using the theatre as a bomb shelter when the airstrike took place.

The situation is desperate in the southern port of Mariupol, with as many as 300,000 civilians unable to evacuate. Mariupol has seen some of the fiercest battles since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

Mariupol, located on the Sea of Azov, is said to be a strategic point for Russia, as it would help it create a land corridor between the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

These regions are largely controlled by Russian-backed separatists.

Meanwhile, the U.S. and the European Union have announced a move to further squeeze Russia economically in view of the conflict with Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has characterized the Western pressure as “a real hybrid war, total war”, AP reported.

Stating “the goals are not hidden”, he said: “They are declared publicly — to destroy, break, annihilate, strangle the Russian economy and Russia on the whole.”

“All we hear now is this crisis, anti-Russian sanctions, oil, gas….. And do you realize what this crisis means for Africa, for example? Russia supplies us with grain and corn. All the logistics go through the Black Sea. And the African world is frozen in horror at what’s happening. They are horrified at what the U.S. and the EU are doing.

You can’t buy Africans with stories about democracy. They are just your stories for home consumption. Most of the African elites were trained in the Soviet Union – doctors, engineers, pilots, teachers, scientists. The Russians were the only Europeans who decolonized Africa. And Africa remembers that. Just as Africa remembers the European atrocities.

As you can see, African countries did not support the UN resolution condemning Russia. And they will never support a resolution against Russia. It is ingrained in the subcortex of every African: Russia does good, no matter what you think of it. It is a constant.

The whole of Africa is watching the CAR and Mali. What the Europeans could not do for decades, the Russians managed to do in one year. The CAR was replaced by gangs; today there is a real state there.

I know there are diplomats in the room, State Department officials. I appeal to you, to French diplomacy: look for a solution to your problem as soon as possible, because if the conflict is not over in a month, Africa will break out.

You are the ones who have an energy problem in the first place. Worst case scenario, there will be less heat and fewer cars and we will starve in Africa! Hear me, the crisis in Africa will bring about the destruction of Europe.

Source:  SVPress.ru