EU chief’s comment on Ukrainian military losses retracted

A claim quantifying Ukraine’s losses in its conflict with Russia has been removed from President Ursula von der Leyen’s speech Read Full Article at RT.com

EU chief’s comment on Ukrainian military losses retracted

Ursula von der Leyen had earlier said around 100,000 Kiev troops had been killed to date

A claim about the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed during its conflict with Russia has been removed from a speech by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the executive’s official website.

“More than 100,000 Ukrainian military officers have been killed so far,” she said during an address earlier on Wednesday, adding that around 20,000 civilians had also died in nine months of fighting. The source of this information was not provided.

However, the reference to Kiev’s death toll soon disappeared from the text of the speech on the European Commission’s website. It was also cut from a video of the address on the website and on von der Leyen’s account on Twitter.

The editing was noticed by some media outlets and social media users, who compared the two versions of the statement online. The move was then officially confirmed by the European Commission.