The Ukrainian military's overall fatalities during the breakthrough from the encirclement near Ilovaisk in Donetsk region topped 300, the Ukrainian parliamentary commission investigating the Ilovaisk tragedy, said in an interim report circulated at a press conference in Kyiv on Oct. 20.
“Neither the Defense Ministry, nor the General Staff has provided a response to the investigative commission’s inquiry about the losses sustained by the Armed Forces during the breakthrough from the ‘Ilovaisk trap,’ sent out back on Sept. 10,” it says.
The interior troops and the National Guard alone lost 31 men between Aug. 24 and Sept. 20; 170 were wounded, 65 went missing and 98 were captured. No information is available about those who died of their wounds later,” the report says.
Commission chief Andriy Savchenko of the Batkivschyna faction said, when asked to speak about the casualties, that “judging from the evidence that is concealed most of all, about 1,000 people were killed, wounded or died of the wounds in all episodes of the Ilovaisk tragedy.”
The Defense Ministry unjustifiably limited public access to reports about the fatalities and about those presented with state awards, he said.
“Unlike other government agencies, the Defense Ministry and the General Staff regularly obstruct the investigation,” the report says.
The commission complained to the president twice in connection with the then defense minister Valery Heletei’s and General Staff chief Viktor Muzhenko’s attempts to obstruct the investigation, it says.
