Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Volodymyr Zelensky, yesterday claimed just between 10-13,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the beginning of the ongoing conflict in February.

He said: “We have official figures from the general staff, we have official figures from the top command, and they amount to (between) 10,000 and 12,500 to 13,000 killed.”

Podolyak added that the Russian death toll was around seven times that of Ukraine’s.

He also said “we are open in talking about the number of dead”, though figures have been shrouded in secrecy since Moscow’s invasion was launched in February, and Western estimates put the number of casualties to date far, far higher.

US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley last month said “you’re looking at well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded… same thing probably on the Ukrainian side”.

Up to 100 Ukrainian troops were being killed (let alone injured) in the Donbas region alone back in June, according to a report by Ukrainian and Western intelligence officials – and, indeed, to Volodymyr Zelensky himself. This alone would suggest today’s figure is much higher than 13,000.