The appalling statistics of dead and wounded in Putin's war in Ukraine

General Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff and therefore the most senior military figure in America, is not someone who tends to exaggerate anything. He is a steady, straight-down-the-middle army officer and he doesn't say anything that he knows is not accurate. So listen to what he has to say about the war in Ukraine. He says 100,000 Russian troops have been killed and wounded and the same number of Ukrainians. So 200,000 casualties, plus 40,000 Ukrainian civilians killed and up to 30 million people displaced from their homes. All this in less than nine months. What a terrifying list of statistics. And they don't include the appalling destruction of property and national infrastructure facilities. Milley advises the Ukrainians to seize the moment for peace to bring this terrible death toll to an end. But there is no peace. There can be no peace. Putin cannot benefit in anyway from the war he started. He cannot be allowed to retain any territory in Ukraine, not when so many Ukrainians have been sacrificed to save their sovereign land from the invaders. And Putin must be punished for everything he has done. He has to pay the penalty. And that means no peace deal that has his signature on the document. Sorry, General Milley, although the Ukrainian people must be desperate for peace, what possible options are there for President Zelensky? After all the brutality by the invading forces how can he sit down and negotiate a peace settlement. I know this is what the Biden administration is now pushing for, and Milley is the latest official to voice hopes for a peace deal. But a deal with Putin? Surely, never!! But then I am writing this at home in safe England where there are no missiles flying or artillery shells being fired. The decision has to be for Zelensky and for the people he serves.