Zelensky reveals war losses and other important secrets

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky finally revealed a concrete number regarding the amount of soldiers who have been killed since Moscow invaded Ukraine. However, what Zelensky quoted doesn’t match other estimates. 

Kyiv has been very tight-lipped about the number of soldiers who have been killed in the war against Russia. The Washington Post reported that the last time any casualty figure was disclosed by Ukraine was in December 2022. 

At that time, Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Zelensky, explained somewhere between 10,000 and 13,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed since the start of the invasion, BBC News reported. That number has more than doubled since. 

Zelensky told reporters on February 25th Ukraine had lost over thirty thousand soldiers during a press conference marking the second anniversary of the war. However, several media outlets reported the figure could not be verified. 

“I don’t know if I have a right to tell you the numbers of our losses. Every single person is a tragedy,” Zelensky said, adding, “31,000 [members] of Ukraine’s military were killed during this war,” according to The Washington Post. 

“This is a big loss for us,” Zelensky told reporters about the number of Ukrainians killed but the New York Times noted the Ukrainian President declined to discuss the number of soldiers missing or wounded since it could help Russia. 

The reason behind Zelensky’s revelation was simple: he was trying to counter Russian claims “300,000 or 150,000, or whatever Putin and his lying circle are saying” Le Monde reported, which added some context to Zelensky's comment. 

The French news outlet noted that in December 2023, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu claimed that 383,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or injured, a figure that would put those killed above the claims made by Zelensky. 

Getting a clear picture of the true death toll of Ukrainian soldiers is difficult and what the country’s president has claimed may match up with estimates from the United States on the number of Ukrainian troops that have been killed. 

The Washington Post reported leaked documents from the Pentagon dated February 21st of 2023 revealed that U.S. officials believed Ukrainian casualties at that time were somewhere between 15,500 and 17,000 soldiers killed. 

Whether or not Ukraine suffered roughly the same amount of killed soldiers from February 21st, 2023 to February 21st, 2024 is possible, but it is also likely that many more were killed during Ukraine's defensive and offensive operations. 

In August 2023, the New York Times reported on comments from unnamed officials that put the number of Ukrainian killed in action at 70,000, a number the news organization noted was dwarfed by Russia’s estimated 120,000 deaths. 

Zelensky also commented on the number of Russian dead according to the independent Russian Meduza, explaining that his assessment showed 180,000 had been killed while the total number lost was over 500,000 when the wounded were included. 

However, Ukrainian and Russian losses weren’t the only secrets that Zelensky revealed at his press conference. The Ukrainian President also told reporters that the country's 2023 counteroffensive plans had been leaked to Russia. 

Business Insider reported that Zelensky also said Ukraine will launch another offensive in 2024. "We have a plan, a clear plan,” Zelensky said, “Several plans will be prepared because of information leaks.”

Zelensky also made it clear that the only way Ukraine would defeat Russia was with the help of its allies: “Whether Ukraine will lose is dependent on you, our partners, the Western world… We will not lose this war if we get the weapons. We will win.”