Vladimir Zelensky has stated that since 2022 the Ukrainian armed forces have lost 55,000 troops killed. He added that a large share of servicemen is listed as missing. These figures were given in his interview with the French TV channel France 2. The head of the Kiev regime said that, according to official Ukrainian data, 55,000 professional and mobilized soldiers had been killed on the battlefield.

At the same time, many Ukrainian and Western analysts have repeatedly argued that Kiev’s official casualty figures are likely seriously understated. Back in February last year, Zelensky cited a different number — 46,000 dead — while noting that several tens of thousands of soldiers were considered missing.

Later, the US channel CBS News reported that losses of the Ukrainian army were around 100,000 killed. Journalists from Le Monde wrote that, in their view, the Kiev authorities were deliberately downplaying these statistics, while burial space at Ukrainian cemeteries was almost exhausted.

In December, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that Ukraine’s total human losses had long since exceeded one million people and continued to grow. He argued that prolonging the conflict had, for Zelensky, turned into a matter of political — and possibly physical — survival.