RTWed, 30 Nov 2022 13:33 UTC
© AFP/Frederick FlorinEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
A claim about the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed during the conflict with Russia has been removed from a speech by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the executive's official website.
"More than 100,000 Ukrainian military officers have been killed so far," she declared during an address earlier on Wednesday,
adding that around 20,000 civilians had also died in nine months of fighting. The source of this information was not provided.
However, her reference to Kiev's death toll soon disappeared from the text of the speech on the European Commission's website. It was also cut from a video of the address on the website and on von der Leyen's account on Twitter.
The editing was noticed by some media outlets and social media users, who compared the two versions of the statement online. The move was then officially confirmed by the European Commission.
The EU executive body's spokeswoman Dana Spinant took to Twitter to thank those who had "pointed out the inaccuracy" in von der Leyen's speech:
"The estimation used, from external sources, should have referred to casualties, i.e. both killed and injured, and was meant to show Russia's brutality,"
In late September, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu stated that Ukrainian losses had by then amounted to more than 61,000 troops, which was ten times greater than Russia's.
Comment: Ursula von der Leyen: Tool of the US?
Self-censorship from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, after she deleted a tweet which mentioned Ukrainian casualties, is "humiliating", former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday.
He added that the climbdown showed the bloc is nothing but a US puppet. Medvedev said in a post on VK:
"It is obvious that 'Aunt Ursula' was slapped upside the head by her bosses in Washington. Seemed to hurt, too. It looks extremely humiliating. There is no EU, there is only the 51st [US] state."
Medvedev has been an outspoken critic of the West since the start of Russia's military operation in Ukraine. On Tuesday, he said NATO was a "criminal entity" that should repent for its crimes against humanity and be dissolved. Earlier this week, he commented on his Telegram account that the "marriage" between the EU and the US is headed for a divorce due to Washington's "economic cheating."
Comment: Ursula von der Leyen: Tool of the US?