US lawmaker demands real Ukrainian casualty figures

Congress should know the situation before it continues to fund Kiev’s war effort, a Republican representative has argued

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie has demanded information on Ukraine’s losses in the conflict with Russia as a condition for approving further military assistance to Kiev, and accused US officials of keeping lawmakers in the dark on the issue.

This summer, the Kentucky representative introduced an amendment to next year’s National Defense Authorization Act, requiring a “report on the casualty and equipment losses for both sides involved in the conflict.” According to the politician, the amendment has been approved by the House and will be reviewed by the Senate.

In an interview on Monday, Massie told the ‘Responsible Statecraft’ online magazine that American security and foreign policy officials have been painstakingly avoiding the topic of casualties since the start of the hostilities.

He described how intelligence officials dodged his questions on the issue during a closed briefing earlier this year. “They really didn't have an excuse, other than they weren't really sure, which seems like an incredible lie,” the Republican said.

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According to Massie, even House Speaker Mike Johnson does not know the real numbers.

“I think it's obvious that they're just feeding us propaganda in classified settings, and then I think it's also true that the Speaker himself has been a subject of propaganda and lacks the curiosity to even question the narrative that we're being fed,” he told the magazine.

Washington is “just giving us one side to try and motivate us to keep sending the money and weapons.” According to the congressman, the State Department is “afraid if we got any bit of bad news about how the war was going, that there would be a reluctance from Congress to keep funding it.”

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Congress needs to know the full picture, including the “bad news” before making any decisions on supporting Kiev any further, the lawmaker believes.
“If they are worried that knowing this number might diminish the appetite for funding the war, then that’s the main reason that Congress needs to know the casualty numbers,” he said.

Kiev has been reluctant to share any data on its losses in to the conflict. Last week, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky accused the Wall Street Journal of lying when the paper claimed that around 80,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed 400,000 more wounded.
In February, Zelensky said 31,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in two years of fighting. The Washington Post then reported in April that the Ukrainian leader had “vastly downplayed” the toll.

Russia has previously estimated Ukraine’s losses at around half a million troops. Moscow does not reveal the exact number of its own casualties either, but President Vladimir Putin said in June that the losses were “one to about five” in Russia’s favor.