Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that since the start of Russia's invasion, nearly 65,000 Russians have died as a result.
"The total losses of the enemy in terms of killed people are approaching 65,000. So many citizens of Russia gave their lives for the possibility of a handful of people in the Kremlin to ignore reality," the Ukrainian president wrote.
"And according to the way the Russian 'burial operation' continues, we can say that even 100,000 dead Russian citizens will not prompt the Kremlin to think a little bit."
Last week, Zelenskyy, in an announcement, declared that 55,000 Russians have died since the beginning of Russia's invasion on Feb. 24.
According to The Hill, the Russian military has so far inflicted widespread destruction on Ukraine's infrastructure via missiles and Iranian-made drones.
"Today and yesterday, various regions of our country were targets of Russian attacks," Zelenskyy continued in his Saturday address. "In particular, by missiles and Iranian drones. Some of the missiles and drones were shot down. But, unfortunately, not all. Unfortunately, there is destruction and casualties."
Zelensky went on, naming "Donbas, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv region, Kharkiv region, Sumy region, Kyiv region, Dnipropetrovsk region and some other regions of our country," as targets of Russia's attack.
The Ukrainian leader then praised the United States's $725 armament package to Ukraine, announced Friday by the Department of Defense, calling it "necessary."
But a day before, on Thursday, Zelenskyy's head adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that Ukraine "rejects" communications between the United States and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"'We will win this war, then we will decide the fate of Russia.' Kyiv also rejects talks between Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin," German reporter Steffen Schwarzkopf tweeted Podolyak as saying.
In April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he did not know if Ukraine could win the war or what a win would look like.
"The bottom line is this," Blinken says, according to CNN, "we don't know how the rest of this war will unfold, but we do know that a sovereign independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin is on the scene. And our support for Ukraine going forward will continue. It will continue until we see final success."
Ukraine's request for more aid comes in light of a recent report from Law Enforcement Today, detailing that in Aug., "the State Department announced that the World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers report, which has been published for over 50 years, will no longer be produced."
The censoring of military expenditures comes as The Intercept reports that since its entry into the war, the U.S. has "pumped more money and weapons into supporting the Ukrainian military than it sent in 2020 to Afghanistan, Israel, and Egypt combined."
Still, in his Saturday address, Zelenskyy maintained that "the way of peace" lies in the continued aid to Ukraine.
"Only real victories of Ukraine," Zelenskyy continued, "only real defending of itself by the free world from Russian terror and blackmail – protection with sanctions, protection with help to Ukraine – only complete displacement of the occupiers from Ukrainian land and dismantling of the aggressive capabilities of the terrorist state – all this is the way to peace."
In 2018, during an interview with Vice, foreign policy experts Stephen F. Cohen, and John Mearsheimer, predicted that if Ukraine is brought into the folds of NATO or the West, it will put the world in a nuclear crisis.
"Any fool could have told you that by bringing in countries on Russia's borders, with historical grievances against Russia, we're going to diminish everybody's [security]," Cohen said.
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