Ukraine has lost 43,000 soldiers on the battlefield since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in Feb. 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed in a rare statement on Ukrainian losses posted on X.
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."
In his post, Zelensky wrote that "Ukraine has lost 43,000 soldiers killed in action on the battlefield," adding that there have been "370,000 cases of medical assistance for the wounded," which includes light or repeat injuries.
It is unclear if Trump was referring to total casualties — soldiers killed and injured — in his Truth Social post.
Zelensky also noted that approximately half of the soldiers wounded in action later return to the battlefield. "This is a testament to the resilience of our Armed Forces and the effectiveness of our medical teams," Zelensky said.
"Since September this year, Russia has been losing troops on the battlefield at a ratio of 5-to-1, or even 6-to-1, compared to us," he added.
As of August, Russia's war has killed 11,743 civilians and injured 24,614, according to the UN, but the actual figures are likely much higher. A lack of access to Russian-occupied and front-line areas makes it nearly impossible to gather accurate casualty numbers.
The updated battlefield casualty figure provided by Zelensky reflects a rise from his February estimate of 31,000 total deaths.
Up until that moment, Ukraine had kept the number of troops killed a secret. Zelensky did not clarify at that time what the government's definition of a troop casualty was.
In recent months, Zelensky and other officials have actively addressed and refuted various claims regarding Ukrainian military losses.
In a Dec. 1 interview with Kyodo News, Zelensky rejected Western media reports suggesting that as many as 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the ongoing war with Russia.
Similarly, Roman Kostenko, secretary of the parliamentary defense committee, dismissed the figure as "exaggerated" during an interview on Sept. 18, in response to a Wall Street Journal report citing the same number.
Asami Terajima
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