“I don’t know if I have the right to tell you the number of our losses. Every person is a tragedy,” he said, adding, “31,000.” [members] of Ukrainian soldiers were killed during this war.”
The last time Ukraine publicly revealed the number of troops missing was in December 2022, when Zelensky's adviser said up to 13,000 soldiers had been killed. Kiev keeps casualty figures under close guard so as not to weaken public morale. But the numbers are believed to have risen dramatically as Ukraine fights to oust Russian forces and many battles reach a stalemate.
Zelensky also said Russia had suffered 500,000 casualties, including 180,000 soldiers killed in action, but that number could not be independently verified.
Last year, a leaked Pentagon document, described as top secret and dated February 21, 2023, included an assessment of military casualties. She added that American officials believe that between 15,500 and 17,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, in addition to between 106,500 and 110,500 wounded.
The same assessment stated that between 35,000 and 42,500 Russian soldiers were killed and between 150,500 and 177,000 were wounded. These numbers are consistent with recent assessments by Western officials who said that more than 200,000 Russian soldiers may have been killed or wounded.
