A Ukrainian Member of Parliament and Security Service Colonel Roman Kostenko, has challenged the accuracy of a recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report regarding Ukrainian military casualties in the ongoing war with Russia. Kostenko, a secretary of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, stated in an interview with Radio Svoboda that the WSJ’s figures are “exaggerated.”
The WSJ report, published on 17 September 2024, claimed that Ukraine had suffered 80,000 military fatalities since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Kostenko asserted that this number is inflated, suggesting that even an estimate of 50,000 deaths could be too high.
“I think these are exaggerated figures. Definitely. Especially if we’re talking about the officially recognized deaths,” Kostenko said. He added that while he doesn’t have access to exact figures, based on previous years’ data, Ukraine had recorded approximately 19,000 officially confirmed deaths in the first year of the war. Kostenko emphasized the difficulty in obtaining precise casualty figures, noting the existence of missing persons cases that complicate the count.
Regarding Ukraine’s ability to continue its defense efforts in light of these losses, Kostenko expressed confidence in the country’s mobilization potential.
The WSJ report estimated total military casualties for both Russia and Ukraine at over one million since 2022, with Russian losses reportedly higher at around 200,000 fatalities and 400,000 wounded. These figures, based on unofficial calculations including Western intelligence estimates, remain contentious due to both countries’ reluctance to release official data.
It’s worth noting that on 25 February 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly stated for the first time since the full-scale invasion that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the first two years of the war. However, he did not disclose figures for wounded and missing personnel. Part of the latter apparently could be killed too.
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