Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that 31.000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the war.
This was the first time Zelenskyy had disclosed a specific number of killed soldiers. Ukrainian officials usually haven’t released such figures.
“31.000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in this war. Not 300.000, not 150.000. Putin is lying, but still, this is a huge loss for us,” Zelenskyy said.
He does not want to aid Russia in further plans
He added that he does not want to disclose the number of wounded as it would aid the Russian army in further plans. The Ukrainian president also stated that tens of thousands of civilians in the occupied parts of the country have been killed.
Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in June 2022 that he believes tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have perished. However, two months later, Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi publicly stated that 9.000 soldiers had been killed.
Zelenskyy’s advisor Mykhailo Podolyak provided data at the end of 2022 stating that 13.000 Ukrainian soldiers had perished.
In an interview, Zelenskyy stated that the ratio is one to five.
“For every Ukrainian soldier killed, five Russian soldiers are killed,” he said, claiming that 180.000 Russians have died in the conflict.
Negotiations with Putin
When asked if it was time for negotiations with Putin given the shortage of ammunition in Ukraine, Zelenskyy replied:
“Can you talk to a deaf man? Can you talk to a man who kills his opponents? We will propose a platform on which Putin can accept that he has lost this war and that it has been a huge mistake and tragedy for us and for the democratic world.”
Asked if he would respond if the Russian president called him, Zelenskyy said that he would never call him in the first place.
“He doesn’t have a mobile phone. How will he call me? I don’t use a telegraph from 1917. He won’t call me, he doesn’t want to
