Ukraine’s Defense Ministry explains why number of army losses is secret

She wrote about this on Telegram.

"From time to time, foreign media publish information about the alleged number of our dead. So I will explain the situation once again. During martial law, this information is a state secret. Not because someone wants to hide something, but because it is a requirement of the military," Maliar said.

The Deputy Minister of Defense said that such data is secret, because during the active phase of the war, the enemy uses the number of dead and wounded among the Ukrainian military to calculate likely further actions.

"The fact is that in military affairs, certain actions depend on the percentage of dead and wounded in relation to the total number of servicemen.  Accordingly, if these figures are known, the enemy can calculate our actions in advance," Maliar explained .

According to her, it is not only about the total number of killed and wounded, but also about losses among specific units and in known areas.

"Information on the total number of killed and wounded during martial law is a state secret. A very limited number of people have access to this information, who have been duly warned of criminal liability for disclosure," the Deputy Defense Minister added.

• A year ago, on August 22, 2022, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said that almost 9,000 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed in the war with Russia.

• In particular, in June 2023, National Security and Defence Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said that Russia's losses in Bakhmut over the past six months had amounted to almost 23,000 soldiers, while Ukraine's losses were 7.5 times lower.

• At the same time, as of 19 August, the Armed Forces of Ukraine had already neutralized more than 257,000 Russian soldiers.