Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently stressed that human lives matter more than land in the ongoing war, saying, “People are more important than land. We will get the land back, but not the people. We live by this law.”
He noted that since Russia’s full-scale invasion, around 650,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or injured.
Zelenskyy described Russia’s approach as relying on “brute force” and criticized the Russian government for showing little care for its own soldiers.
“There is only one law in Russia: if soldiers don’t advance, they are shot by their own side. Russia has itself killed countless mobilized soldiers out of fear that they might retreat or refuse to attack. Their law counts on brute force, with no regard for lives lost. Russia now has approximately 650,000 casualties both dead and wounded.”
Zelenskyy also mentioned that Russia leaves its soldiers’ bodies on the battlefield, saying, “Their soldiers’ bodies rot in the fields, abandoned where they fell.”
He added: “This is the face of Putin’s war. In the East, they advance by overwhelming us with sheer numbers and using what can only be described as a meat grinder of their own troops.”
He talked about the situation in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces carried out preventive strikes on Russian positions. In response, he said, Russian forces began shelling their own civilians.
“Our forces are providing food and water to civilians in the region, as these are not soldiers but ordinary people,” Zelenskyy said.
“And what we are witnessing are Russian civilian casualties from their own artillery. Such is the nature of this war,” he added.
Earlier, Zelenskyy suggested that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi could help mediate peace talks to end the war. Polish President Andrzej Duda also firmly opposed any suggestion that Ukraine should give up land to end the war with Russia.
