In the first public revelation of his nation's losses, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that at least 31,000 troops have been killed fighting off the Russian invasion. Tens of thousands of civilians in occupied areas also have died, he said. Ukraine has been secretive about casualties in the two-year-old war, reports CNN, which points out that it can't verify Zelensky's figures. US officials have estimated the death toll at 70,000. The president told a forum in Kyiv that the real number is 31,000, "not 300,000, not 150,000, not whatever Putin and his deceitful circle have been lying about." He added, per the AP, "But nevertheless, each of these losses is a great sacrifice for us."
Ukraine's defense minister said the losses have risen because half of the military aid promised by other countries has arrived late. "If what is allocated does not arrive on time, we lose personnel, we lose territories," Rustem Umerov told the forum. "This is a war where allied forces must provide supplies on time. At the moment, commitment doesn't constitute delivery." With US aid stuck in Congress and the EU coming up short of its ammunition promises, Ukraine is cranking up defense industries. The strategic industries minister said production capacity tripled in 2023 but can't come close to meeting the war's ammunition needs.
An official of a Western nation told the BBC that Russia also is unable to produce all the ammunition it needs for the invasion. Russia has had 500,000 casualties, Zelensky said, including 180,000 troops killed in action, though those numbers also could not be verified. Western estimates have put Russian casualties at more than 200,000, per the Washington Post. Ukraine's last disclosure of its losses was in December 2022, when a Zelensky adviser said that as many as 13,000 troops had been killed. Zelensky said Sunday that he would not provide the number of wounded because it would help in Russia's strategic planning. (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)
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