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Vladimir Putin’s deputy defence minister may have accidentally revealed Moscow’s estimate of its losses in Ukraine.
Until now, the exact number of those Russian deaths or casualties have been kept firmly under wraps.
Ana Tsivilyova, who is also the daughter of Putin’s cousin, told a meeting with lawmakers that the Kremlin had tens of thousands of appeals from relatives who are searching for missing or dead soldiers.
Speaking in a video published by the independent Astra Telegram channel, she said: “The ministry of internal affairs takes [DNA samples] absolutely free of charge at its own expense, and enters into its database for all the relatives who have applied to us. I’ve already said 48,000.”
Shortly after she let this detail slip, Russia’s defence committee chief Andrei Kartapolov cut in and told viewers: “I earnestly ask you not to use these figures anywhere.
“This is such sensitive, closed information. And when we draw up the final documents, we should not include these figures anywhere.”
Tsivilyova replied: “I didn’t give the numbers of missing people, but the number of requests to us. Many of them will be found. So this number is specifically requests, not data.”
The video was published by popular Telegram channel Astra and streamed at the time on the website for the parliament’s lower house, the Duma.
The exchange reportedly took place on 26 November. Reuters noted that it was not on the site on 4 December.
It remains unclear exactly how many troops have died in the war on either the Ukrainian or the Russian side.
Independent Russian news site Mesiazone and the BBC Russian service confirmed the names of 82,050 soldiers who had died in Ukraine as of 6 December
Meanwhile, Western intelligence estimates that Russian losses – dead or injured – exceed 700,000.
In fact, the UK’s Ministry of Defence reported that November was also the costliest month for the war, with casualties reaching 1,500 a day.
The Kremlin is thought to be reluctant about revealing the true extent of the losses so the Russian public remain unaware of the real wartime impact.
Putin is also pushing ahead at Russia’s fastest rate of the war yet to gain as much land as possible as US president-elect Donald Trump is expected to push for a peace deal once in office.
Speaking to US journalist Tucker Carlson – who interviewed the Russian president in February – Putin’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia will use “any means” to prevent defeat by the West this week.
Lavrov said the West must take Russia’s “red lines” seriously – although he also admitted Russia and the US were not at war right now, despite the aggressive rhetoric from Putin.
He said: “And in any case, this (war) is not what we want. We would like to have normal relations with all our neighbours, of course… especially with a great country like the United States.”
He also said Donald Trump was a “very strong person, a person who wants results”.
The US president-elect has promised to end the war on his first full day back in the White House, but has not explained how he would do so, sparking fears he could pressure Ukraine to cede land to Russia.
Lavrov told Carlson any potential peace deal has to acknowledge the realities on the ground – as Russia controls 20% of Ukraine – and exclude any chance of Ukraine joining Nato.
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