The president's estimate of military deaths and injuries is incorrect. And Ukraine isn't happy about it: "It's sensitive information."
The president is the one who delivers the figures and makes them incorrect. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission's number one, has been accused for two days of not only disclosing classified material on the Ukrainian war that had not yet been provided by the Kiev administration, but also of disseminating inaccurate information. In one of her typical video announcements released on Twitter on Wednesday morning, the president announced that "more than 20,000 civilians and 100,000 Ukrainian military officers had been killed so far" in the ongoing conflict. Shortly afterwards, the video was removed and then uploaded, although without the disputed amount.
What compelled the president's staff to 'edit' the section of the movie about war casualties, which is currently in the public domain? Dana Spinant, von der Leyen's spokesman, tweeted an early explanation: "Many thanks to those who pointed out the statistics' mistake in an earlier version of this video. The estimate, obtained from outside sources, was supposed to relate to casualties, i.e. both the dead and the injured, and was intended to demonstrate Russia's ruthlessness ". A few lines that have failed to persuade anyone, beginning with the Ukrainian government.
"We cannot confirm this statistic; we emphasize that the losses of the Ukrainian army are classified material subject to disclosure limitations," the Armed Forces of Ukraine's spokesperson, Bohdan Senyk, said, according to Ukrainska Pravda. The first irritated official response from Kiev was that of Oleksij Arestovich, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who disputed von der Leyen, saying that the Ukrainian military casualties would be "little over ten thousand." However, even this data should be interpreted with caution because the number of casualties at the front is virtually never publicized during a fight in order to avoid discouraging troops and maintaining the morale of those who support them.
Regardless of the Kiev version, von der Leyen's claim of 100,000 victims among "Ukrainian military officers" is incorrect, owing to the significant gap between regular troops and officers. It's difficult to think that the whole Ukrainian army can rely on 100,000 officers, let alone if this figure just includes deaths at the front. With a background as Germany's defense minister, von der Leyen's team should have been able to check her facts.
But the most natural inquiry is: where does von der Leyen's (inaccurate) data originate from? The most widely accepted theory is that the president adopted, without mentioning, the assessment of US General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Milley stated in early November that 100,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers were "killed or injured." To this should be added the civilian casualties, which, according to the American general, number in the thousands. However, in the Commission President's statement, the 100,000 "dead or injured" were just referred to as "dead."
In response to press inquiries following von der Leyen's mistake, her spokesman confirmed that "Some victims' names were mentioned in an earlier version of the message. The goal was to demonstrate the cruelty of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which is well known and must be condemned ". Another theory begs the question: if von der Leyen's purpose was to illustrate the cruelty of this conflict, why didn't he also highlight the number of casualties among the ranks of Russian soldiers?