'Huge price of freedom' — Ukraine marks Remembrance Day for fallen soldiers
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Ukraine marks Remembrance Day for Defenders on Aug. 29, for the eighth time since the observance was introduced in 2019.
"Today is the Day of Remembrance for Ukraine's fallen defenders — a day that reminds us of the huge price of freedom," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on X.
"But remembrance lives through many more ways — in the way we speak their names, honor them in our cities, and pass their stories on to others."
Ukraine's Day of Remembrance for Defenders takes place each year on Aug. 29 to honor service members and volunteers killed fighting for the country's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The date, Aug. 29, is linked to the tragedy near the city of Ilovaisk, Donetsk Oblast when Russian forces in 2014 violated an agreement to provide a safe corridor for Ukrainian troops to withdraw from encirclement and opened fire on them.
According to estimates by Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office, 366 Ukrainian soldiers were killed, 429 were wounded and 300 were taken captive by Russia during the Ilovaisk attack.
In Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine, people honored fallen Ukrainian soldiers with a daily minute of silence at 9 a.m. local time.
A nationwide and international "Table of Remembrance" campaign is also taking place on Aug. 29. As part of the initiative, restaurants, government institutions, public venues and military units reserve and set one table in memory of fallen soldiers. One such table was set up in Kyiv's central Maidan Nezalezhnosti square ("Independence Square" in English) on Aug. 29.
Kyiv rarely discloses figures on Ukrainian battlefield casualties.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told France TV on Feb. 4 that at least 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in action since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, with many more missing in action (MIA).
A January 2026 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimated that Ukraine had likely suffered between 500,000 and 600,000 casualties from February 2022 through December 2025, including an estimated 100,000 to 140,000 killed in action (KIA).
The intensity of Russian drone attacks and ongoing fighting has made it extremely difficult for Ukraine to recover the bodies of fallen soldiers, which are needed for DNA identification.
