You're reading: Poroshenko: 70 JFO soldiers from Ukrainian Armed Forces killed since start of Russian aggression in Donbas

Since the beginning of the war with the Russian aggressor in Donbas, 70 soldiers of the Joint Forces Operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been killed, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has said.

“War is not only a victory, and, unfortunately, 70 of our battlefield blood brothers gave their lives for Ukraine,” Poroshenko said on Thursday during a visit to the 142nd training center of the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Zhytomyr region.

He noted that since the beginning of the war with the Russian aggressor, special-purpose soldiers had completed more than 3,000 combat missions, of which more than 700 were carrying out special actions, “information about which, for obvious reasons, is not to be disclosed.”

“The heroic deeds of the special forces, carried out in battles with the Russian aggressor, are forever recorded in the history of the Ukrainian army. Some 294 soldiers of Special Forces were awarded state awards, four of them received the high title of Hero of Ukraine,” the president said.