31,000 Ukrainian troops killed since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Zelenskyy says

MicroWave@lemmy.world to World News@lemmy.world – 285 points – 31,000 Ukrainian troops killed since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, Zelenskyy says
apnews.com

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in action in the two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Zelenskyy said that the number was far lower than estimates given by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government.

“31,000 Ukrainian military personnel have been killed in this war. Not 300,000, not 150,000, not whatever Putin and his deceitful circle have been lying about. But nevertheless, each of these losses is a great sacrifice for us”, Zelenskyy said at the “Ukraine. Year 2024” forum in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian leader said that he wouldn’t disclose the number of troops that were wounded or missing. He also said that “tens of thousands of civilians” had been killed in occupied areas of Ukraine, but said that no exact figures would be available until the war was over.

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So if he says 31,000, Poutain says 300,000, can we assume the correct number is in between? Propaganda works both ways

The Pentagon leaks should give some insights here:

https://www.businessinsider.com/russians-ukrainians-killed-putins-war-leaked-documents-2023-4?op=1

The US estimated that about 16.5k UA soldiers were killed in about the first year and change of fighting so the 31k estimate is possible after 3 years but seems pretty low. It would extrapolate out to about 45k, but the fighting has been different every year.

Edit: apparently it's only been 2 years of fighting, my bad, numbers from Zelensky look pretty legit to me then.

Come on, Business Insider?

Insider was not able to independently verify these figures, and it is unclear when, exactly, the leaked data was compiled

Aka, we just make this shit up for clicks 😂

Where'd you go? The other person responded to you.

Somewhere in between, sure. But don't interpret that to mean that the most likely real number is exactly in the middle. I consider Russian numbers to be way less credible.

maybe you don't understand what's happening.. Ukraine wants everyone to know how many people have died defending their homeland.. Putin doesn't want anyone to know how many Russians have died for nothing..

There was an old xkcd reposted recently about how both the earth and sun revolve each other and the truth is in the middle. The center of rotation is still inside the sun though. The middle depends on the magnitude of the lie, and Russia lies much more.

I would bet the number is higher than said, but Zelensky likely picked the most credible low number analysis for this statement.

Russia can and will say whatever the fuck they want.

So sure, in between; id wait for outside analysis too though.

31k sounds awful low, considering the amount of Russian troops they claim to have taken out

Difference between defensive positions and caring for your men's lives vs being on the offensive and just throwing men into machine gun fire maybe.

And proper tanks, that may burn, but don't catapult you in to space. Same goes for artillery and rockets that actually find their target.

Makes it so much more important, Ukraine gets all the best we (= the west) can offer.

Russia's conduct has been abhorrent. Storm-Z and the troops of the Donbass pseudo-states in particular.

Also, one must consider that Ukrainian numbers of enemy personnel eliminated generally includes wounded and captured; whereas Zelenskyy's estimate here does not include wounded, missing, or captured, just dead.

It's probably an accurate estimate with that in mind, possibly (though not necessarily) a little on the low side for PR purposes.

Let's double the Ukrainian numbers...makes the numbers not any less staggering