Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday in a speech at the Valdai debating club that he “always” thinks about the losses incurred in the “military operation in Ukraine,” Reuters reported.

At the same time, he said that Russia had no choice to launch the invasion and that the losses of the conflict, including to the Russian economy, were inevitable.

“We would have suffered even greater losses if we had not intervened,” he told Russia’s political and economic elite on Thursday.

He accused the Euromaidan, which took place in Ukraine in 2014, was a coup d’état organized by the United States and that it led to “today’s tragic events”.

Putin also said that “NATO began seizing Ukrainian territories” long before he began “a special operations operation in Ukraine on February 24.”

He emphasized that Russia, starting the war, had only one goal – “to help the people of Donbas.”

What losses does Russia claim in the war in Ukraine

The last time losses in the “special operation” were discussed in Moscow was September 21, when Putin announced a decree on partial mobilization.

Then Defense Minister Serhii Shoigu, speaking after the speech of the head of the Kremlin, said that the Russian troops would have lost almost 6 thousand people.

His statement was widely mocked on social media, with netizens noting the irony that Russia claims it has not lost even 6,000 soldiers in the war but must mobilize 300,000.

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