On the first day of the third year since Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky referred for the first time to the number of his country's soldiers killed in the conflict.
The Ukrainian leader admitted this Sunday that the dead on his side amount to 31,000, without wanting to provide the number of wounded so as not to give clues to Moscow about the troops he maintains on the front.
Yes, he has made public the number of casualties that, according to his government, his army has caused to the enemy: 500,000, of which 180,000 would be dead.
He has also admitted that Ukraine, on the defensive after its failed counteroffensive and lack of ammunition, is “in the most difficult moment.”
The ratio of deaths for each side offered by the Ukrainian president – five Russian soldiers killed for every one from Ukraine – is much higher than that offered by the United States last summer, in the midst of Kiev's counteroffensive.
Also the total figures.
US officials assured last August that at that time the number of dead on the Russian side reached 120,000, and between 170,000 and 180,000 wounded, while Ukraine would have lost 70,000 (between 100,000 and 120,000 wounded), that is, that the soldiers The fallen Russians, despite being far superior to the Ukrainians, were not even twice as large, according to
The New York Times
.
Ukraine has around 500,000 troops in its army, while Russia almost triples that number, with 1.3 million men.
Zelensky has not explained how his government has counted their deaths, but it is most likely that they are confirmed deaths in which the body has been recovered.
The Kiev Executive Office that is in charge of prisoners of war assured on January 24 that there are “tens of thousands” of soldiers missing, according to its head Yuri Taraniuk.
On February 19, the independent Russian media Mediazona, in collaboration with the BBC, gave its own estimate of confirmed Russian deaths in Ukraine, which was 44,654 military personnel.
The research to reach that number was based on public sources such as obituaries, comments from relatives on social networks, news published in regional media and information from local authorities.
The figure also does not count the tens of thousands of troops whose bodies may have been abandoned on the battlefield and who are considered missing.
President Zelensky speaks at the conference 'Ukraine.
Year 2024', this Sunday in kyiv.
VALENTYN OGIRENKO (REUTERS)
The Ukrainian president, visibly tired, offered these data at a press conference after the Ukraine 2024 Forum, an event designed by Kiev to breathe optimism into a society that is beginning to show signs of fatigue with a stagnant front and its army in retreat due to to the lack of ammunition and rotations.
Its second largest financial and arms contributor after the EU, the United States, has blocked an aid package of 56 billion euros in the House of Representatives, with a Republican majority in favor of Donald Trump, the party's most likely candidate for the presidency. White House, favorite in the polls, and whose position regarding assistance to the Zelensky Government is unknown.
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