Almost 100,000 Russian soldiers killed in war, Ukraine says
Almost 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the war, Ukraine has said.
The country's defence ministry released an update on Wednesday, claiming 99,740 Russians had died since the invasion on 24 February.
Ukraine added it had also destroyed a substantial amount of enemy vehicles and weapons, including 1,688 drones and 5,979 armoured combat vehicles.
It came as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy headed to Washington to meet US president Joe Biden and to address Congress, seeking “more weapons" to fight the war.
It was Zelenskyy’s first overseas trip since Russia invaded Ukraine 300 days ago.
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Zelenskyy said the visit was meant to strengthen Ukraine's "resilience and defence capabilities" amid repeated Russian missile and drone attacks on the country's energy and water supplies.
Russia last publicly disclosed its losses on 21 September, claiming 5,937 soldiers had been killed.
That number is far below most international estimates, with the US estimating on 9 November that more than 100,000 soldiers had been killed or wounded on each side.
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Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday his army must learn from and fix the problems it had suffered in Ukraine, promising to give the military whatever it needed.
In a speech to defence chiefs in Moscow, Putin said there were no financial limits on what the government would provide in terms of equipment and hardware.
"We have no funding restrictions. The country and the government are providing everything that the army asks for," he said.
Putin acknowledged, not for the first time, that the call-up of 300,000 reservists he ordered in September had not gone smoothly.
He also referred to other unspecified problems in the military and said constructive criticism should be heeded.
It was the latest in a series of recent comments in which Putin acknowledged the challenges he faced.
On Tuesday, he told security officers the situation in four regions of Ukraine that Russia has claimed as its territory - something Kyiv rejects - was “highly complicated”.
And earlier this month, he said Russia could be fighting in Ukraine for a long time.
Meanwhile, Biden is set to announce nearly $2 billion (£1.6 b) in further military assistance for Ukraine, including a Patriot missile battery to help it defend itself against barrages of Russian missiles.
