Ukraine aims to inflict up to 50,000 casualties on Russia per month, defence minister says
Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has said that one of Ukraine's strategic goals is to inflict up to 50,000 casualties on Russian forces each month, making the war unsustainable for Russia.
Source: Fedorov during a meeting with the media
Quote: "The president has set a clear task: to build a system capable of stopping the enemy in the air and its advances on the ground and ramping up asymmetric and cyber strikes against the enemy and its economy. The objective is to impose costs on Russia that it cannot bear. In this way, to force peace through strength."
Details: Fedorov said that diplomacy plays its part, but the state must also deliver tangible results in the military sphere.
He also said that several key stages have been identified to this end, the first of which is restructuring governance.
The minister noted that the Ministry of Defence must adopt a new approach: it should go beyond procurement and logistics to include civilian oversight, coordination and clear synchronisation of processes.
"It is necessary to set the right tasks. A system without tasks begins to fail. That is why management is the first priority. Management must be built around those who are capable of achieving defined goals. If people do not demonstrate measurable results, they cannot remain in the system," Fedorov said.
He named the scale of losses inflicted on the Russians as the second strategic objective.
Quote: "Last month, 35,000 were killed – all of these losses have been verified on video. If we reach the figure of 50,000, we will see what happens to the enemy. They treat people as a resource, and problems with that resource are already obvious."
Background:
- On 2 January, Zelenskyy proposed that Mykhailo Fedorov, then first deputy prime minister and minister of digital transformation, be appointed as the new defence minister.
- On 5 January, Zelenskyy and Fedorov discussed the changes Fedorov planned to implement in his role as defence minister.
- On 9 January, Ruslan Stefanchuk, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), reported that parliament had received letters of resignation from Ukraine's Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal and Fedorov.
- On 13 January, the Verkhovna Rada approved the dismissal of Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal, who was later appointed minister of energy.
- On 14 January, the Verkhovna Rada approved the appointment of Fedorov as the new minister of defence.
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