Some 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, Volodymyr Zelensky has said in a rare admission of the extent of the nation’s casualties.
In a post on social media, the Ukrainian president said 370,000 others had been injured, though this figure included soldiers who had been hurt more than once.
He also claimed that 198,000 Russian soldiers had been killed and a further 550,000 wounded.
The BBC has not been able to verify either side’s figures.
While both Kyiv and Moscow have regularly published estimates of the other side’s losses, they have been reluctant to detail their own.
The new figure marks a significant increase in Ukrainian deaths since the start of the year.
The last time Zelensky gave an update on Ukraine’s casualties was in February, when he put deaths at 31,000.
The Ukrainian president is thought to have been compelled to make the admission after incoming US President-elect Donald Trump wrote on social media that Ukraine had “ridiculously lost” 400,000 soldiers, while close to 600,000 Russians had been killed or wounded. Trump did not state where these figures were from.
The incoming president, who has long made clear he wants to bring an end to the war, said too many lives had been “needlessly wasted”.
Zelensky’s estimates of Russian losses are similar to those provided by senior Western officials, who estimate Russia has suffered around 800,000 casualties, both killed and injured.
Credit: bbc.com
