- By Kathryn Armstrong
- BBC News
February 25, 2024, 15:10 GMT
Updated 1 hour ago
Image source: Getty Images
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President Zelensky said he released the updated death toll to counter Russia's inflated estimates
According to Volodymyr Zelensky, 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in Russia's large-scale invasion.
The Ukrainian president said he would not reveal the number of wounded because it would help Russian military planning.
Ukrainian officials typically do not release casualty figures, but other estimates are much higher.
This came after the defense minister said half of all Western aid to Ukraine had been delayed, costing lives and territory.
Mr. Zelensky said on Sunday that he had provided an updated death toll in response to the inflated numbers that Russia has given.
“31,000 Ukrainian soldiers died in this war. Not 300,000 or 150,000 or whatever Putin and his circle of lies say. But each of these losses is a great loss for us.”
Turning to major casualties in the war, Mr. Zelensky said tens of thousands of civilians had died in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, but the true number was unknown.
“I don’t know how many of them died, how many were killed, how many were murdered, tortured, how many were deported.”
It is rare for Ukraine to provide a military death toll, and other estimates suggest the number is much higher.
Regarding Russian losses, Mr. Zelensky said 180,000 Russian soldiers were killed and tens of thousands more were injured.
In February, the British Ministry of Defense estimated that 350,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or injured.
President Zelensky's address came after his Defense Minister Rustam Umerov denounced the country's Western allies over delays in military aid.
“Right now, commitment does not mean delivery,” he said.
Ukraine is currently experiencing a series of setbacks in its mission to expel Russia from its territory.
Mr. Umerov said the lack of supplies puts Ukraine at an even further disadvantage “in the mathematics of war.”
“We do everything possible and impossible, but without timely delivery it harms us,” he said.
In January, the EU said that just over half of it would arrive in Ukraine on time and that the promised amount would not arrive until the end of 2024.
President Zelensky said one of the reasons Ukraine's much-anticipated counteroffensive did not begin earlier last year was the lack of weapons.
Mr. Zelensky also noted on Sunday that plans for the counteroffensive had been passed on to Russia ahead of schedule.
Mr. Zelensky attributed this in part to weakening Western arms supplies.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, said the delay in Congress of a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine contributed to the city's demise.
Western leaders traveled to Kiev on Saturday to show solidarity with Ukraine as the country marked the second anniversary of Russia's all-out invasion.
It was announced there that Italy and Canada had signed security agreements with Ukraine to strengthen support until the country could join NATO.
Canada's deal included more than three billion Canadian dollars (£1.7 billion) in financial and defense aid.
“Russia’s domestic munitions production capacity is currently insufficient to meet the needs of the Ukraine conflict,” a Western official claimed.
They added that Moscow could only increase its supply by seeking alternative sources of ammunition and weapons, which do not offer a long-term solution.