31,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed since the beginning of the Russian invasion

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in fighting in the two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Zelenskyy said the figure was much lower than the estimates given by the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“31,000 Ukrainian military personnel were killed in this war. Not 300,000, not 150,000, not anything that Putin and his deceitful circle are lying about. But still, each of these losses is a great sacrifice for us,” Zelenskyy said, “in Ukraine. “Year 2024” forum in Kiev.

The Ukrainian leader said he would not disclose the number of injured or missing soldiers. He also said that “tens of thousands of civilians” had been killed in the occupied regions of Ukraine, but that exact figures would not be available until the war was over.

“We don’t know how many of our civilians they killed. “We don’t,” he said.

Kiev confirmed the number of casualties for the first time since Russia’s full-scale war began on February 24, 2022.

Russia gave very few official casualty figures. The Department of Defense’s most recent data, published in January 2023, points to just over 6,000 deaths, although reports from US and UK officials suggest the number is significantly higher.

A US intelligence report declassified in mid-December 2023 estimated that 315,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded in Ukraine. If accurate, that figure would represent 87% of the approximately 360,000 troops Russia had before the war, according to the report.

Nearly 75,000 Russian men have died in the war in 2022 and 2023, independent Russian news outlet Mediazona said on Saturday.

A joint study published by Mediazona and Meduza, another independent Russian news site, shows that Russia’s casualty rate in Ukraine is not slowing down, with Moscow losing about 120 men a day.

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