02/25/2024 7:48 pm (current 02/25/2024 7:48 pm)
Zelenskyy's numbers cannot be independently verified ©APA/AFP
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.
Zelensky rejected loss figures cited so far by the American or Russian side, which suggest that between 100,000 and 300,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed. “This is all nonsense.” Zelensky estimated Russian losses at 180,000 dead and 500,000 wounded. The president's statements could not initially be independently verified.
It is the first time that one of the parties to the conflict has officially released its own number of victims. The number of casualties on the Russian side mentioned by Zelensky is significantly higher than the count updated daily by the Ukrainian armed forces, which on Sunday estimated the total number of Russian losses at 409,820 killed and wounded.
Zelensky declined to comment on casualties among the Ukrainian population. Those numbers are currently unknown, he said.
Exact military casualties have until now been kept secret by both sides. 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.