Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed that Ukraine has lost 45,100 military personnel since Russia’s full-scale invasion, with 300,000-350,000 estimated Russian deaths, according to an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan released on 4 February 2025.
The disclosure marks a rare official acknowledgment of Ukraine’s military losses since Russia’s invasion began on 24 February 2022.
In the interview, Zelenskyy detailed that Ukrainian forces have sustained approximately 390,000 instances of wounds, clarifying that this number reflects total wound incidents rather than unique individuals wounded, as some soldiers returned to combat and were wounded multiple times.
This latest casualty update shows an increase from Zelenskyy’s previous statement on 8 December 2024, when he reported 43,000 Ukrainian military deaths and 390,000 wound incidents.
What do we know about Ukrainian military losses in the war against Russia?
Determining the exact number of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the Russo-Ukrainian War is challenging due to the ongoing nature of the conflict and the fog of war. However, the available sources indicate that Zelenskyy’s number diverges notably from other estimates
Estimates from The Economist, based on various sources including Western intelligence, suggest the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed could be between 60,000 and 100,000. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal places the losses at 80,000. Both estimate the number of wounded at 400,000.
Ukrainian military journalist Yuriy Butusov, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian portal Censor.net, has claimed that Ukraine’s General Staff reported 105,000 dead and missing Ukrainian servicemen to the Commander-in-Chief in December 2024. According to him, 70,000 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed and 35,000 are missing.
In August 2023, US officials estimated that approximately 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and between 100,000 to 120,000 wounded, NYT reported.
And what about Russian losses?
In the interview with Morgan, Zelenskyy estimated Russian wounded at 600,000-700,000, with an additional 50,000-70,000 Russian personnel missing in action.
The Ukrainian military’s General Staff maintains its own daily count of Russian losses, reporting approximately 843,000 Russian personnel casualties as of 4 February 2025.
Former US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s 7 December statement cited Russian losses of at least 700,000 personnel and war expenditures exceeding $200 billion.
The British Ministry of Defence has reported that 2024 brought Russia’s heaviest losses since the invasion began, with Russian casualties totaling 429,000 in 2024, compared to 105,960 in 2022 and 252,940 in 2023. Their assessment places Russia’s total war casualties above 750,000.
Russia has maintained near-silence regarding its casualties, with its last official announcement in September 2022 claiming 5,937 deaths. Ukraine had previously withheld casualty figures, stating such information would be released after the war’s conclusion.
