Non-combat irreversible losses within the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donbas were 256 deceased individuals in 2016, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a response to a request of the Ukrayinska Pravda online media’s journalist Oleksiy Bratuschak.
“I received a response from the Defense Ministry today. A total of 211 servicemen were killed in combat and 256 not in combat. The number of suicides are shocking, 63, and 58 servicemen died of illnesses,” Bratuschak wrote on Facebook, posting a photocopy of the ministry’s response.
According to statistics in a letter from the Defense Ministry, 39 servicemen died due to reckless handling of weapons, 30 were murdered and 29 deaths were classified as accidents. Apart from that, 18 people were killed in road accidents, ten died of poisoning from alcohol, drug substances and other things, five died from other causes and four due to violations of security measures.
