As shared by the Ukrainian news outlet known as The Kyiv Independent, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has now stated that about 4,300 Russian troops have been killed by Ukrainians defending their homeland against Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s invasion, marking yet another steady increase over previously reported casualty figures for Russia. Alongside those recently shared Russian troop casualty numbers, 27 planes, 26 helicopters, 146 tanks, 706 armored personnel carriers, and numerous other vestiges of the Russian invasion were reported to have been wiped out by Ukrainians.
Updated numbers of Russia's casualties and other losses as of Feb. 27, according to Ukraine's Defense Ministry. pic.twitter.com/Z0Q9MNsCEy
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) February 27, 2022
So far, Ukrainian defenders have been able to keep Russian invaders from taking over more expansive areas like the capital city, Kiev, although not without substantial costs on Ukraine’s side, too — at least hundreds of Ukrainians have been killed, although for obvious reasons, numbers aren’t certain at this point in time and could rise. Additionally, over 360,000 Ukrainians and counting have been displaced amid the conflict, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Military aid for the Ukrainians has poured in from interests including the United States, where the Biden administration recently outlined plans for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of additional aid, including items like anti-aircraft weaponry. Negotiations between Ukrainians and Russians about potentially ending the conflict were announced for Monday, but Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy wasn’t optimistic about the arrangement. He said, though, to “let them try, so that no citizen of Ukraine doubts that I, as president, tried to stop the war when there was still a chance, however small.”
⚡️️Zelensky doesn't believe in the positive outcome of the negotiations with Russia.
"But let them try, so that no citizen of Ukraine doubts that I, as president, tried to stop the war when there was still a chance, however small," he said in a video address.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) February 27, 2022
Somehow, it’s become an open question within the GOP whether or not unequivocal support will even be provided for Ukraine. Before Russia launched its full-fledged invasion of the smaller country, but after Putin’s regime had already been militarily antagonizing Ukraine, Trump himself referred to Putin as “savvy,” and over the weekend at the latest installment of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Trump stood by his praise of Putin, commenting that the “problem is not that Putin is smart, which, of course, he’s smart… The problem is that our leaders are dumb… and so far, allowed him to get away with this travesty and assault on humanity.” Quite frankly, the “assault on humanity” part of those remarks doesn’t automatically sound like something that Trump came up with on his own, but regardless of that aspect — it sounds like it’s fundamentally all a game to him. No, Trump — you don’t have to hand it to Vladimir Putin for invading another country and putting untold numbers of people in deadly danger. This matter should not be difficult!
As of Feb. 27, all the biggest cities – Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Mariupol, Kherson – are still under full Ukrainian control, despite Russia’s massive and costly effort to seize or isolate them. https://t.co/JirzanUkDt
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) February 27, 2022
