Since the large-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed. In addition, 370,000 were injured.
For the first time in almost three years, President Volodymyr Zelensky detailed figures given about the losses on the Ukrainian side. Zelensky did this a day after his meeting with incoming US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. In February this year, two years after the invasion, mentioned Zelensky for the last time a concrete figure for the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed: 31,000. Early this month contradicted Zelensky enter a message The Wall Street Journal that 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers are said to have died by now.
Zelensky had not previously commented on the numbers of injured people on the Ukrainian side. He wrote of “370,000 cases of medical treatment of the wounded.” According to Zelensky, this also includes soldiers with minor injuries. “It should also be mentioned that within our armed forces, approximately half of wounded soldiers later return to the battlefield.”
Civilian casualties
According to the most recent figures from United Nations 11,743 civilians were killed in the war up to and including August of this year. The UN assumes that the actual number of civilian casualties is significantly higher. For example, there is little to no reliable information about Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories.
According to President Zelensky, the military losses on the Russian side are much greater than those on the Ukrainian side. He cited on Sunday the figure of 198,000 Russian soldiers killed since the invasion of Ukraine, and more than 550,000 wounded. “Since September this year, Russian losses on the battlefield have been soldiers at a ratio of five to one, or even six to one, compared to ours.”
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Moscow itself does not provide figures on fallen, wounded or missing Russian soldiers in the war in Ukraine. The independent Russian medium Mediazona, which, together with the BBC, maintains verified data of Russian victims on the front lines in Ukraine based on public sources, will at this moment out of 82,050 fallen Russian soldiers.
Peace guarantees
In his statement, Zelensky reiterates that Ukraine “wants peace more than anyone else.” But given Russia’s recent past, Kyiv first wants to talk about “effective peace guarantees” before peace with Russia can be discussed. Zelensky points to recent Russian interference in Georgia, Moldova, Syria and Moscow’s destabilizing policy in Africa as examples of why Ukraine wants guarantees. “Russia has brought our country to war, and it is Russia that is trying to disrupt the chance for peace as much as possible.”
A ceasefire without guarantees can be violated at any time, “as Putin has done before,” Zelensky said. “To ensure that the Ukrainians no longer have to suffer losses, we must establish the reliability of a peace agreement, and not close our eyes to the [Russische] occupation.”
In recent months, President Zelensky has advocated NATO membership, at least for the parts of the country not occupied by Russia. But the United States and Germany in particular seem to have no interest in this at the moment.
The question is whether that situation will change drastically for Ukraine after the inauguration of Donald Trump as president in January. Trump has consistently said he wants to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, but has not provided details on how he plans to do that. The incoming president said last weekend in Paris that Zelensky wants peace. In an interview with NBC Trump said on Sunday that Ukraine should “probably” prepare for the arrival of less arms support from the United States.