This figure contrasts a claim made earlier the same day on Dec. 8 by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who wrote on his Truth Social platform that Ukrainian military losses had reached "400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians."
"Recently, some in, I believe, the American press reported that 80,000 Ukrainians had been killed. I want to tell you that, no, (the number of those killed is) less, much less," Zelensky said, while refusing to provide a detailed number of casualties.
The bodies of 397 soldiers were recovered from Donetsk Oblast, while 64 were brought back from Zaporizhzhia Oblast and 24 from Luhansk Oblast. Another 17 bodies were repatriated from morgues in Russia.
Between 60,000 to 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the full-scale war, and 400,000 more are too injured to fight on, according to estimates by The Economist published on Nov. 26.
"I think that these are exaggerated data. Definitely... Namely when talking about the recorded number of killed," secretary of the parliamentary defense committee Roman Kostenko said.
Roughly 1 million Ukrainians and Russians have been killed or wounded during Moscow's all-out war against Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sept. 17, citing undisclosed sources and Western intelligence estimates.
The bodies will be sent for forensic analysis and identification before being handed over to their families for burial, the headquarters said.
Editor's Note: The Kyiv Independent spoke with children under the permission of one of their surviving parents. At the age of 11, Arina Pervunina saw Russian troops killing her father. She and her younger brother were caught behind enemy lines at their grandparents’ house in Kherson Oblast shortly after the
President Volodymyr Zelensky announced recently that 31,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in the war against Russia, the first official release of military personnel losses in over a year. "Every person is a very great loss for us. 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers died in this war," Zelensky said on
Around 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been recorded as killed by Russia's war, President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the "Ukraine. Year 2024" forum in Kyiv on Feb. 25.
