Ukraine Zelensky speaks of 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has put the official losses of his own troops since the start of the Russian war of aggression almost four years ago at 55,000 soldiers killed.
05.02.2026, 05:38
SDA
This also includes professional soldiers and mobilized soldiers, he told the French broadcaster France2 in an interview. In addition, there is a large number of people who are missing, said the head of state, who was fighting back tears.
While both warring parties report enemy casualties on a daily basis, they very rarely report their own casualty figures. It is considered certain that both Russia's and Ukraine's leaders are downplaying their own losses and increasing those in the ranks of the enemy. Other estimates do not match the official figures from Moscow and Kiev.
A year ago, in an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan, Selensky put the losses of the Ukrainian armed forces at more than 45,000 soldiers killed and 390,000 injured since the start of the war. According to his new statements, this would mean that around 9,000 soldiers have been killed within a year. Since 2025, the Ukrainian side has received the remains of more than 16,500 fallen soldiers back from Russia in the exchange of bodies alone.
Think tank: Russian losses many times higher
At the end of January, a report by the Washington-based think tank CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies) estimated losses of 500,000 to 600,000 soldiers for Ukraine alone since the start of the war in February 2022, including 100,000 to 140,000 dead. The losses on the Russian side were put at 1.2 million soldiers, including 325,000 dead. According to the CSIS, the figures are based on information from the military, intelligence services and governments of various countries.
There are also attempts to count confirmed deaths of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers based on funerals, obituaries and posts on social networks. At the end of January, the Russian news portal "Mediazona" estimated that at least 168,000 Russian soldiers had been confirmed dead. The Ukrainian website ualosses.org reported 87,000 dead soldiers, 86,000 missing and 4,400 Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia. However, the creators of both websites assume that their counts are incomplete because many deaths are not reported.
If the death of a Ukrainian soldier in combat is recognized, relatives receive a total of 15 million hryvnia, the equivalent of around 294,000 euros.
