Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Andrii Melnyk, said on Monday that Russia would need to deploy millions more troops to fully occupy Ukrainian territory, arguing that the human cost of its offensive is unsustainable.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting, Melnyk said Ukraine rejects Russian ultimatums and will not cede any part of its territory.
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“Ukraine will never leave a single square millimeter of its land,” he said.
Melnyk presented calculations suggesting that Russian forces lose an average of 254 soldiers for every square kilometer (0.4 square miles) of Ukrainian territory captured.
He argued that at this rate, occupying the entire Donetsk region would require at least 1.5 million additional Russian troops, while a full occupation of Ukraine would be “unrealistic,” potentially taking decades and incurring massive losses.
Melnyk also criticized Moscow’s war strategy, saying Russia is “burning its own population” for limited territorial gains.
Stalled front lines and high losses
The war in Ukraine has increasingly been characterized by slow territorial advances and high casualty rates, particularly in eastern regions such as Donetsk.
Western and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that Russia’s offensive comes at a high human cost, while Moscow continues to push for territorial concessions as a condition for negotiations.
Ukraine has consistently rejected such demands, insisting that any peace settlement must respect its territorial integrity.
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