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Stalin
instructed Marshal Semyon Budenny to hold Kiev at any price, but it
was too late; German tanks had placed the Ukrainian capital in a
stranglehold. Stalin addressed his soldiers over the radio, urging
them to continue holding the town and to fight to the death.
Nevertheless, the Wehrmacht occupied Kiev, killing 350,000 Soviet
soldiers and taking 600,000 prisoner. The Soviet losses included
3,718 artillery pieces, 884 armored vehicles, and five armies. |
