KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky On Sunday, Russia announced that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in combat in the two years since the start of the military operation. full-scale invasion.
President Zelenskiy said the figure was much lower than estimates given by Russian President Vladimir Putin's government.
“31,000 Ukrainian servicemen died in this war. Not 300,000, not 150,000, not what Putin and his gang of deceivers are lying about. But nevertheless, each of these losses is for us It is a huge sacrifice,” President Zelenskiy said on “Ukraine.” 2024” Kiev forum.
The Ukrainian leader said he would not say how many soldiers were injured or missing. He also said that “tens of thousands of civilians” had been killed in occupied Ukrainian territory, but said exact numbers would not be known until the war is over.
“We don't know how many civilians they killed. We don't,” he said.
It is the first time Kiev has confirmed the number of losses since Russia's all-out war began on February 24, 2022.
Russia has released few official casualty figures. The latest Ministry of Defense data released in January 2023 put the death toll at just over 6,000, but reports from U.S. and British officials put the number significantly higher.
A declassified US intelligence report in mid-December 2023 estimated that 315,000 Russian troops had been killed or injured in Ukraine. According to the report, this figure is equivalent to 87% of the approximately 360,000 troops Russia had before the war.
Russia's independent news agency Mediazona reported on Saturday that around 75,000 Russian men have been killed in the 2022 and 2023 wars.
According to a joint study published by Mediazona and Meduza, another Russian independent news site, the rate of Russian losses in Ukraine is unabated, with Russia losing around 120 troops per day.
___
Follow AP's war coverage. https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine