Over 2,750 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed since the beginning of the conflict in Donbas, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said.
“Over 2,750 Ukrainian soldiers, including almost 2,400 from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, gave their lives for Ukraine, for every piece of native land,” the president said at the premiere of the film “Cyborgs” in Kyiv late on Dec. 6.
As reported, on Oct. 28, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that combat casualties of the Ukrainian army had reached 10,710 servicemen since the start of the Ukrainian army military actions in Donbas in April 2014, and 2,333 of them had been killed.
“As of October 28, 2017, combat casualties stand at 10,710 servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including 2,333 irreversible casualties, and 8,377 servicemen wounded or injured during fighting,” the General Staff said on its Facebook account.
A total of 212 Ukrainian servicemen were killed and another 1,277 were injured in fighting in 2016, it said. At the same time, the number of non-combat losses was 65 percent lower than the number of combat losses.
“This year, 2017, sees a tendency toward a considerable decrease, by 50 percent, in non-combat losses in units of Ukraine’s Armed Forces,” the General Staff said.
Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak said on Dec. 5 that non-combat losses in the Ukrainian Armed Forces had shrunk by five times.
“The problem of non-combat losses exists in all armies around the world and in our country. If we compare it with previous years, the number of such losses has decreased by five times. This year, we have 90 such cases, and this is a progressive trend. However, not everything has yet been done by commanders and specialists in the selection of personnel,” he said in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine news agency and the 1+1 television channel.
