Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has for the first time provided official casualty figures for the Ukrainian military: 31,000 soldiers have died since the start of the Russian war of aggression two years ago, as Zelenskyy said at a press conference on Sunday.
“I don’t want to say the number of injured,” he added.
The loss figures cited so far by the American or Russian side, for 100,000 to 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed Zelensky rejected it. “This is all nonsense.”
Zelenskyy quantified the number Russian losses to 180,000 dead and 500,000 injured. The president's statements could not initially be independently verified.
First-time loss numbers
It is the first time that one of the parties to the conflict has officially released its own number of victims. The number of victims on the Russian side mentioned by Zelenskyy is again well above the count updated daily of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which on Sunday estimated the total number of Russian casualties at 409,820 dead and injured.
Zelensky declined to comment on casualties among the Ukrainian population. Those numbers are currently unknown, he said.
Exact military casualties have been reported by both sides so far Ultra-secret sustained. Summer 2023 US estimates put around 70,000 Ukrainians dead and 120,000 Russian soldiers dead. In mid-February, the US Department of Defense estimated the number of Russian soldiers killed or wounded at 315,000.