The Ukrainian President reveals a number of what he said the total casualties of the Ukrainian army during two years of the Russian war
In the first official disclosure of the number of military deaths in months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed during the comprehensive Russian invasion that has been ongoing for two years.
He added in a press conference that he could not reveal the number of people wounded in the war, indicating that this would support Russian military planning operations.
Zelensky said that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in this war.
“Not 300,000, not 150,000… its 31,000… Putin is telling lies there… But still, this is a big loss for us.”
Ukraine hasn’t disclosed its military losses since the end of 2022, when presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said that 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the start of the invasion on February 24.
The issue of determining the extent of losses on both sides of the conflict has been a matter of controversy, as Russia does not provide information about the number of its dead in the war that has been going on for two years, considering that this information is military secrets, while Western sources provide conflicting information about the deaths of Russian forces, which comes part of the raging media campaign against Moscow.
While Ukraine continued to maintain a complete silence regarding the numbers of its victims, especially the military ones, knowing that even the number disclosed by the Ukrainian president may be less than what is true, taking into account that the Ukrainian side has large numbers of casualties among its ranks, of those who officially aren’t belongs to the Ukrainian official army, such as militias and non-military groups, in addition to the deaths of foreign mercenary units fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.
