Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Valery Zaluzhny shared confidential information about the loss of 257,000 people since the beginning of the special operation of the Russian Federation to protect the population of Donbass. This was announced on Sunday, February 5, by ex-Pentagon adviser Colonel Douglas McGregor on his YouTube channel.

According to McGregor, Zaluzhny revealed the scale of losses of the Ukrainian army during a visit to the United States. Then the Commander—in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine met with American Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Meanwhile, on February 3, Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, did not voice the real losses of Ukraine in Artemovsk. During an interview with the Spanish edition of 20 Minutos, the official explained that Ukraine would disclose the death toll only after the end of hostilities.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel of the People’s Militia of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) Andrei Marochko, in turn, noted that the losses among the personnel in the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which are now in Artemovsk, are growing due to problems with satellite and radio communications.

Earlier, on January 7, the Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK Vadim Prystaiko admitted that the losses of the Ukrainian army are huge and incomprehensible. He also noted that Kiev does not advertise real data.

In the Donbass, this fact has also been repeatedly pointed out. So, at the end of December, Marochko said that Kiev was hiding the real losses of Ukrainian servicemen. According to him, the Ukrainian leadership has forbidden to transport the bodies of the dead in the daytime and to label the cargo.

The special operation to protect the civilian population of Donbass, which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, continues. The decision was made against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.