Ukraine’s armed forces have lost around 10,000 to 13,000 soldiers in Vladimir Putin’s war against the country, Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has said.
The top Ukrainian officials said that the war-hit country is “open in talking about the number of dead” and added that more soldiers have been injured than had died.
This comes as Joe Biden has said he is ready to speak with Mr Putin if the Russian president is interested in ending the war in Ukraine, as he sought to alleviate European anger over US subsidies.
Mr Biden said that the “one way” for the war to end in a “rational way” is for Mr Putin to “pull out of Ukraine”.
The French leader said he would continue to talk to Mr Putin to "try to prevent escalation and to get some very concrete results" like assurances on the safety of nuclear plants.
On the war’s frontlines, Russian rockets pounded neighbourhoods in Kherson knocking out power in the city and intense shelling continued to batter a number of eastern frontline villages near the city of Bakhmut.
