31,000 Ukrainian troops killed since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Zelenskyy says ( apnews.com )

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in action in the two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Zelenskyy said that the number was far lower than estimates given by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.

“31,000 Ukrainian military personnel have been killed in this war. Not 300,000, not 150,000, not whatever Putin and his deceitful circle have been lying about. But nevertheless, each of these losses is a great sacrifice for us”, Zelenskyy said at the “Ukraine. Year 2024” forum in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian leader said that he wouldn’t disclose the number of troops that were wounded or missing. He also said that “tens of thousands of civilians” had been killed in occupied areas of Ukraine, but said that no exact figures would be available until the war was over.

jenny_ball ,
@jenny_ball@lemmy.world avatar

how many Russians?

PlutoniumAcid ,
@PlutoniumAcid@lemmy.world avatar

It's nearly 500 000 now. Insane.

Gigan ,
@Gigan@lemmy.world avatar

Is that casualties or killed? They're not the same.

mean_bean279 ,

I think that was just casualties. This is Ukraine talking about strictly dead people.

theodewere ,
@theodewere@kbin.social avatar

there's no reason to doubt him.. Ukraine hasn't tried any mindless, meat grinder offensives, and the front line hasn't moved against Ukraine significantly since about the 6 month mark.. there's no reason to believe they've lost many more than that, while it's easy to believe the Russians have lost 10 times that number or more.. most of the Ukrainian casualties have been innocent civilians.. babies, women, children, etc.. the Russians have not shown themselves capable of defeating Ukrainian military units..

Hubi ,

there’s no reason to believe they’ve lost many more than that

While I do believe the official numbers that the Ukrainian government has released, it's also important to note that these do not include military personnel that are missing in action. The actual number of dead is still unknown and likely will remain so until the war is over.

Mr_Blott ,

So if he says 31,000, Poutain says 300,000, can we assume the correct number is in between? Propaganda works both ways

prettybunnys ,

I would bet the number is higher than said, but Zelensky likely picked the most credible low number analysis for this statement.

Russia can and will say whatever the fuck they want.

So sure, in between; id wait for outside analysis too though.

Mr_Blott ,

31k sounds awful low, considering the amount of Russian troops they claim to have taken out

ichbinjasokreativ ,

Difference between defensive positions and caring for your men's lives vs being on the offensive and just throwing men into machine gun fire maybe.

PugJesus ,
@PugJesus@kbin.social avatar

Russia's conduct has been abhorrent. Storm-Z and the troops of the Donbass pseudo-states in particular.

Also, one must consider that Ukrainian numbers of enemy personnel eliminated generally includes wounded and captured; whereas Zelenskyy's estimate here does not include wounded, missing, or captured, just dead.

It's probably an accurate estimate with that in mind, possibly (though not necessarily) a little on the low side for PR purposes.

ralphio ,

The Pentagon leaks should give some insights here:

https://www.businessinsider.com/russians-ukrainians-killed-putins-war-leaked-documents-2023-4?op=1

The US estimated that about 16.5k UA soldiers were killed in about the first year and change of fighting so the 31k estimate is possible after 3 years but seems pretty low. It would extrapolate out to about 45k, but the fighting has been different every year.

Edit: apparently it's only been 2 years of fighting, my bad, numbers from Zelensky look pretty legit to me then.

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