Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lays a wreath in Lviv, 23 February 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/Mads Claus Rasmussen
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 31,000 Ukrainian servicemen and women had been killed since since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of the country two years ago.
Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, Zelensky declined to say how many people had been wounded over the same period to avoid giving the Russians any intelligence. However, he did say that 180,000 Russian soldiers had died during the full-scale war, and that the number of Russian dead and wounded now totalled 500,000.
The announcement is the first official death toll announcement Kyiv has made since December 2022, when the number of dead was estimated by Zelensky advisor Mykhailo Podolyak to stand at between 10,000–13,000.
On Saturday, a joint investigation carried out by independent media outlets Meduza and Mediazona found that 75,000 Russian troops had died between 24 February 2022 and the start the year.
