Speaking on Tuesday, Putin said Russia would achieve all its “noble” goals and “rhythmically and calmly” continue what it calls a special operation.
Moscow said on March 25, its most recent update, that 1,351 soldiers had been killed since the start of the campaign. Ukraine says the actual number is closer to 20,000.
“Russia has been told once again that their so-called ‘special operation’ is supposed to go according to plan. But, to be honest, no one in the world understands how such a plan could even be carried out,” Zelensky said. in video address.
“How could a plan that foretells the death of tens of thousands of their own soldiers in just over a month of war come about? Who could approve such a plan?”
Zelensky asked how many dead Russian soldiers would be accepted by Putin, giving a range of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
Moscow had lost more men in the 48 days since the start of the war than in the 10-year war in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, he said.
Zelensky said that while some had mocked the Russians, their failures in the field and inferior technology, their opponents were not all desperate.
“We have to understand that not all Russian tanks are stuck in the fields, not all enemy soldiers are just leaving the battlefield and not all are conscripts who do not know how to hold their weapons properly,” he said.
“It does not mean we should be afraid of them. This means that we must not diminish the achievements of our fighters, our army.
(Report by David Ljunggren and Ron Popeski; edited by Grant McCool)
