They found that more than 27,300 Russian soldiers died during the second year of the war, a 25-percent increase on the first year.

BBC Russian, Mediazona and volunteers have been counting deaths since February 2022, using open-source information from official reports and the media, as well as using satellite images of Russian cemeteries to estimate the number of new graves.

The figure of more than 50,000 is eight times higher than the official toll acknowledged by Moscow in September 2022. It does not include deaths of militia in Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine said in February that it had lost 31,000 soldiers, but that figure is also likely to be significantly lower than the true toll.

Russian losses spiked in January 2023 as it launched a large-scale offensive in Donetsk and again months later last year during the battle for the city of Bakhmut.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” at dawn on February 24, 2022, which has since turned into a bloody and attritional war, isolating Russia from the Western world.

Responding to the report, the Kremlin said it did not disclose any information on military deaths and casualties, which falls under the remit of the defence ministry.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added official secrets laws and those covering what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine meant it was “absolutely understandable” that the ministry did not release the figures.

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Republicans in Congress have been blocking tens of billions of dollars in military assistance for Kyiv for months.

“It is necessary to specifically tell Congress that if Congress does not help Ukraine, Ukraine will lose the war,” Zelensky said during a video meeting of Kyiv-organised fundraising platform United24.

Zelensky said it would be “difficult” for Ukraine to “stay” (survive) without the aid.

He said that “if Ukraine loses the war, other states will be attacked.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has dragged on for more than two years.

Kyiv said Sunday that a Russian strike on the town of Gulyaipole in the southern Zaporizhzhia region killed three people.

“Two men and a woman died under the rubble of their own private house, which was hit by a Russian shell,” the head of the region, Ivan Fedorov, said on social media.

Officials said another civilian, a woman, was killed in the city of Kupiansk, in the northeastern Kharkiv region that has seen increased attacks in recent months.

“A woman died under the rubble in an apartment on the fourth floor of a high-rise building,” Ukraine’s state emergency services said, adding that it was a residential building.

Authorities in the main city of Kharkiv said Russia launched another attack on Sunday, wounding five civilians, a day after a deadly attack there.

Russia, meanwhile, said a young woman was killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on the Belgorod border region.

Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said shrapnel hit a car with a family of six inside in the village of Shagarovka, some 35 kilometres (20 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, a girl died,” Gladkov said, without specifying whether she was a minor. “She died from her wounds on the spot.”

Gladkov said her father had a head wound and that two children were taken to hospital.

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France and China have sought to strengthen ties in recent years and, during meetings in Paris in February, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told President Emmanuel Macron that Beijing appreciated his country’s “independent” stance.

But Paris has also sought to press Beijing on its ties with Moscow, which have only grown closer since the invasion of Ukraine.

While China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict, it has been criticised for refusing to condemn Moscow for its offensive.

Paris has, in contrast, become one of Kyiv’s firmest backers, with Macron in February even refusing to rule out putting troops on the ground in Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said Monday that Beijing “plays a key role in… the respect of international law, including on Ukraine’s sovereignty, and therefore we are clearly expecting that China will send very clear messages to Russia”.

“We are convinced that there will be no lasting peace if it is not negotiated with the Ukrainians,” he told a press conference in Beijing, speaking alongside his Chinese counterpart Wang.

“There will be no security for Europeans if there is no peace in accordance with international law,” he continued.

“It is an essential issue for us, which is why France is determined to maintain a close dialogue with China,” he said.

– ‘Closeness’ –
Sejourne’s visit is the second to China by a French foreign minister in less than six months, following a trip by his predecessor Catherine Colonna in November.

On Monday afternoon he met with Premier Li Qiang at Beijing’s opulent Great Hall of the People, telling China’s number two official he wanted to discuss “global situations that are fracturing and dividing the world today”.

“I am thinking of the situation in the Middle East, but also in Ukraine,” he said.

Li said he was “very happy” to welcome the minister to Beijing.

“Our two countries have a long history and splendid civilisations,” Li said, hailing their shared “spirit of independence and autonomy”.

“This explains why China and France have a natural sense of closeness,” he said.

Macron also visited last April, receiving a rock star welcome at a university in southern China from hundreds of screaming students and fans.

But he faced accusations of cosying up to Beijing and sparked controversy by saying Europe shouldn’t be a “follower” of the United States in the event of conflict with China over Taiwan.

His foreign minister’s visit this week comes as part of events marking the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and China.

Sejourne will later in the day take part in the launch of the “Versailles and the Forbidden City” exhibition, where around 60 works of art and valuables from the palace can be viewed by the public until the end of June.

– ‘Derisking’ not ‘decoupling’ –
France’s efforts to improve ties with Beijing come as the EU seeks to shield itself from excessive reliance on China.

That “derisking” has emerged in recent months as a core pillar of the European bloc’s economic policy towards China, spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The term contrasts with the more drastic approach known as “decoupling” — pursued by some policymakers in the United States who aim to isolate China or cut all commercial ties with the country.

The EU increasingly views China as a “partner”, but also as “an economic competitor and systemic rival”, a report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said last month.

In Beijing on Monday, Sejourne said decoupling was not on the cards.

But, he said, an “economic rebalancing” was needed to ensure trade was “healthy and sustainable”.

Foreign Minister Wang, in turn, said he “appreciates” Sejourne’s rejection of decoupling.

“It is not possible to decouple from China, and decoupling from China is the biggest risk,” Wang said.

“I believe that it has been proved, and will continue to prove, that China is an opportunity and not a risk for Europe. Both sides are partners and not rivals”.

The post France Presses China for Clarity on Stance Towards Russia in Ukraine Conflict first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

The post France Presses China for Clarity on Stance Towards Russia in Ukraine Conflict appeared first on MegaIcon Magazine.

The agency also reported his death, saying he was killed near the frontline village of Pytikhatki.

“As a result of a strike by the Ukrainian army using cluster munitions, four journalists were wounded in various levels of severity,” the Russian army said in a statement.

“During an evacuation, the RIA Novosti journalist Rostislav Zhuravlev died from his wounds that resulted from the cluster munitions exploding.”

It said the other correspondents have wounds of “medium severity.”

Russian war correspondents have greatly risen in influence during Moscow’s more than 17-month long offensive in Ukraine.

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