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Ukraine was furious after the European Union said 100,000 of its soldiers were dead, calling it classified information. Photos/Illustrations
Ursula von der Leyen revealed the number in a video speech which led the Kiev military to declare the death toll was “secret information”. The recording of the speech has since been edited to remove the reference.
The video, now available on von der Leyen’s Twitter account, is 2 minutes and 4 seconds long and does not give a death toll in Ukraine.
Baca: EU reveals 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed in war, but immediately censored
However, another Twitter user shared a 2 minute 16 second version of the message which reads: “About 20,000 civilians and more than 100,000 Ukrainian military officers have been killed so far.”
The president of the European Commission did not specify where this data came from.
This action also received a response. In Russia, state news agency TASS was among the media to use the figures and said the European Commission had “deleted information on 100,000 dead Ukrainian servicemen”.
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After the video was released, Bohdan Senyk, a spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces, told Ukrainian news agency Ukrainska Pravda: “We cannot confirm this figure.”
“We emphasize that the losses of the Ukrainian army are classified information and are subject to publication restrictions,” he added. NewsweekThursday (1/12/2022).
