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WORLD NEWS Thursday 24 March 2022
NATO: 7,000 to 15,000 Russian troops dead in Ukraine

By NEBI QENA and destroyed buildings, next to Zelenskyy accused Russian said. With casualties mounting
CARA ANNA the roads,” he said. forces of seizing a humani- Despite plenty of evidence and quick victory no lon-
Associated Press Still, major Russian objec- tarian convoy. to the contrary, Kremlin ger in sight, Russia is having
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — NATO tives remain unfulfilled. The Deputy Prime Minister Iryna spokesman Dmitry Peskov to work to suppress dissent
estimated on Wednesday capital, Kyiv, has been Vereshchuk said the Rus- insisted the military opera- and shore up morale.
that 7,000 to 15,000 Rus- bombarded repeatedly sians were holding cap- tion is going “strictly in ac- It has arrested thousands
sian soldiers have been but is not even encircled. tive 11 bus drivers and four cordance” with plans. of antiwar protesters and
killed in four weeks of war in Near-constant shelling rescue workers along with The most recent figure for cracked down on the me-
Ukraine, where fierce fight- dia.
ing by the country’s fast- Also, under a law passed
moving defenders has de- Wednesday, troops in
nied Moscow the lightning Ukraine will get the same
victory it sought. benefits as veterans of pre-
By way of comparison, Rus- vious wars, including tax
sia lost about 15,000 troops breaks, discounts on utilities
in Afghanistan over 10 and preferential access to
years. medical treatment.
A senior NATO military of- In an apparent reflection
ficial said the alliance’s of growing divisions in Rus-
estimate was based on in- sia’s top echelons, Anatoly
formation from Ukrainian Chubais has resigned, Pes-
officials, what Russia has kov told the Interfax news
released — intentionally agency.
or not — and intelligence Chubais, the architect of
gathered from open sourc- Russia’s post-Soviet priva-
es. The official spoke on tization campaign, had
condition of anonymity served in a variety of top
under ground rules set by posts over three decades.
NATO. His latest role was as Putin’s
When Russia unleashed envoy to international or-
its invasion Feb. 24 in Eu- ganizations.
rope’s biggest offensive Peskov would not say if
since World War II, a swift Chubais had left the coun-
toppling of Ukraine’s gov- try.
ernment seemed likely. But Western officials say Putin’s
with Wednesday marking forces are facing serious
four full weeks of fighting, shortages of food, fuel and
Moscow is bogged down A serviceman carries the photo of Capt. Andrei Paliy, a deputy commander of Russia’s Black Sea cold weather gear, with
in a grinding military cam- Fleet, during a farewell ceremony in Sevastopol, Crimea, Wednesday, March 23, 2022. soldiers suffering frostbite,
paign. Associated Press while Ukraine’s defenders
With its ground forces have been going more on
slowed or stopped by hit- the offensive.
and-run Ukrainian units and gunfire shook the city their vehicles. Ukraine’s military losses Still, Russia’s far stronger,
armed with Western-sup- Wednesday, with plumes In their last update, over came from Zelenskyy on bigger military has many
plied weapons, Russian of black smoke rising from a week ago, Mariupol of- March 12, when he said Western experts warning
President Vladimir Putin’s the western outskirts, where ficials said at least 2,300 that about 1,300 Ukraini- against overconfidence in
troops are bombarding tar- the two sides battled for people had died, but the an servicemen had been Ukraine’s long-term odds.
gets from afar, falling back control of multiple suburbs. true toll is probably much killed in action. The Kremlin’s practice in
on the tactics they used in Mayor Vitali Klitschko said higher. Airstrikes in the past The NATO official said past wars has been to grind
reducing cities to rubble in at least 264 civilians have week destroyed a theater 30,000 to 40,000 Russian sol- down resistance by flatten-
Syria and Chechnya. been killed in the capital and an art school where ci- diers are estimated to have ing cities, killing countless
As U.S. President Joe Biden since the war broke out. vilians were sheltering. been killed or wounded. civilians and sending mil-
left for Europe on Wednes- In the south, the encircled In the besieged northern Russia has released very lions fleeing.
day to meet with key al- port city of Mariupol has city of Chernihiv, Russian little information on its ca- Talks to end the fighting
lies about possible new seen the worst devasta- forces bombed and de- sualties, saying March 2 have continued by video.
sanctions against Moscow tion of the war, enduring stroyed a bridge that was that nearly 500 soldiers had Zelenskyy said negotiations
and more military aid to weeks of bombardment used for aid deliveries and been killed and almost with Russia are going “step
Ukraine, he warned there is and, now, street-by-street civilian evacuations, re- 1,600 wounded. by step, but they are going
a “real threat” Russia could fighting. But Ukrainian forc- gional governor Viacheslav Ukraine also claims to have forward.”
use chemical weapons. es have prevented its fall, Chaus said. killed six Russian generals. With no peace, those not
Addressing Japan’s parlia- thwarting an apparent bid Kateryna Mytkevich, who Russia acknowledges just yet fighting prepared to do
ment on Wednesday, Ukrai- by Moscow to fully secure arrived in Poland after flee- one dead general. so.
nian President Volodymyr a land bridge from Rus- ing Chernihiv, wiped away The figures from NATO rep- “Everything’s a bestseller
Zelenskyy said thousands sia to Crimea, seized from tears as she spoke about resent the alliance’s first these days,” said Zakhar
of his people have been Ukraine in 2014. what she had seen. The public estimate of Russian Sluzhalyy, owner of a gun
killed, including at least 121 Zelenskyy said 100,000 ci- city is without gas, electric- casualties since the war be- shop in the western city of
children. vilians remain in a city that ity or running water, said gan. The U.S. government Lviv.
“Our people cannot even had 430,000 people be- Mytkevich, 39, and entire has largely declined to pro- “We’re defending our
adequately bury their mur- fore the war. Efforts to get neighborhoods have been vide estimates of Russian or land,” he said. “We’re
dered relatives, friends and desperately needed food destroyed. Ukrainian casualties, saying fighting for our freedom
neighbors. They have to be and other supplies to those “I don’t understand why available information is of and that of the rest of
buried right in the yards of trapped have often failed. we have such a curse,” she questionable reliability. Europe.”q