For the first time since its invasion of Ukraine The Russian Defense Ministry gave its official accounting of casualties in the war saying late Wednesday that 498 soldiers had been killed and more than 1,500 wounded.
It also said that more than 2,800 Ukrainian troops had died in the fighting.
Ukraine’s military said more than 5,800 Russian troops have been killed in action. Kyiv hasn’t said how many of its own service members have died.
Neither the Russian nor Ukrainian figures could be verified independently.
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Moscow has sought to play down the extent of the fighting involved in its invasion of Ukraine. For much of the first week of the war, the Russian Defense Ministry limited its public comments to saying that the losses it had suffered were significantly lower than those on the Ukrainian side, without providing details.
Delegations from Ukraine and Russia are preparing to begin a second round of talks. The latest reports suggest the talks will restart Thursday morning near the Belarus-Poland border. The first round of negotiations ended without a breakthrough on Monday.
In an interview cited by Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “Our negotiators are prepared for a second round of discussions about [security] guarantees with the Ukrainian representatives.”
