Human rights activist: At least 1,500 Russian soldiers have died in the Donbas
At least 1,500 Russian soldiers were killed and about 5,000 more were injured in the Ukrainian Donbas during Russia’s aggression in the region, according to Valentina Melnikova, a human rights activist and leader of the Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia.
"We believe that Russia’s losses in Ukraine make up at least half of the Ukrainian army’s losses... A minimum of 1,500 Russian soldiers were killed. That means that almost 5,000 more were wounded, and maybe even more... I know that Russian soldiers continue to be sent to Ukraine," Melnikova said in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper.
She added that there was no accurate enumeration of dead Russian soldiers because the Russian military command sends them to fight in the Donbas illegally.
Melnikova noted that it will only be possible to find out the exact number of killed and wounded after the war ends, when the survivors and the families of the victims "will demand compensation."
According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Information Resistance group, Russian soldiers regularly lose their lives in the Donbas as a result of hostilities, in everyday conflicts, as well as from drug overdoses. For example, earlier it was reported that some of the DPR and LPR separatists, being in an intoxicated state, struck their own front line, and as a result, three of them were killed and 11 were injured.