Ukraine Offers Russia a Halloween Ouija Board to Contact over 70,000 Dead

Ukraine's Ministry of Defense offered to send a Ouija board to Russia so the country's military can "stay connected" with more than 70,000 troops killed in Ukraine during the war.

The Ukrainian military sent the macabre Halloween taunt to its Russian counterpart in a tweet on Monday. Ukraine has claimed that an estimated total of 71,820 Russian troops have been killed since the war began on February 24, including more than 1,500 soldiers purportedly killed on Sunday and Monday alone.

"So, it's Halloween..." the Ukrainian defense ministry tweeted alongside three jack-o'-lantern emojis. "Everyone thinks about the treats. Perhaps it's time we send an Ouija board to russian ministry of defence, so they can stay connected with over 70 000 of their personnel in Ukraine."

Ukraine's defense ministry also shared to Twitter on Monday a video of a Russian military helicopter being shot down, while describing it as a "short video tutorial from #UAarmy on how to turn a russian Mi-8 into a flaming jack-o'-lantern."

Throughout the war, the Ukrainian government has frequently trolled and taunted Russia on social media. After a massive explosion lit up and damaged the bridge linking mainland Russia to the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula earlier this month, the official account of the Ukrainian government tweeted, "sick burn."

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense tweeted in September that it had "received thousands of tons of ammunition as a gift" from fleeing Russian forces amid a successful Ukrainian counterattack. The tweet warned that the military would "return everything, right down to the last shell" because Ukraine does "not accept gifts from murderers, torturers, looters, or rapists."

After a missile attack sunk Russia's Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva in April, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov celebrated "one more diving spot in the Black Sea" in a tweet alongside a photo of himself scuba diving and a promise to "visit the wreck after our victory in the war."

The exact number of Russian troops killed is during the war unclear. Newsweek has not independently verified Ukraine's estimated death toll. While Russia rarely releases its own statistics on troop deaths, the figures that have been supplied by Moscow have been far lower than Ukrainian claims.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on September 21 that a total of 5,937 Russian troops had been killed since the beginning of the war, according to Reuters. Ukraine had claimed more than 10 times as many Russian deaths at the time.

A Pentagon official estimated in August that there had been as many as 80,000 Russian casualties during the war, including both deaths and injuries. The U.S. estimated that at least 15,000 Russian soldiers had been killed by July. The U.K. government estimated that around 25,000 Russians had been killed by early September.

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.