Russia has suffered “significant losses of troops”, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Peskov was asked on Sky News whether the war had been a “humiliation”, given that Russia had retreated from the capital, lost thousands of troops and that President Volodymyr Zelensky was still in power.
He said this was a “wrong understanding” of what was going on.
But asked again if Russia has lost thousands of troops, he said: “Yes, we have significant losses of troops and it’s a huge tragedy for us.”
He then added that the withdrawal from the Kyiv region and the northern city of Chernihiv was an “act of goodwill” to “lift tension” during peace talks.
In the interview, Peskov repeated Russia’s reasons for what it describes as a “special military operation”, saying Ukraine had become “anti-Russian” and Russia was “really nervous” as Nato had “started to move towards our boundaries”.
Russia has previously said that 1,351 soldiers have been killed. The full death toll is not known, but a Nato official has been quoted in the US media as saying between 7,000 and 15,000, and there are similar US estimates.
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