Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has stated that Ukraine’s military has lost “about 50,000” soldiers since the war escalated in 2022, a figure five thousand less than he previously reported six months ago.
During an interview with Fox News recorded during his visit to Washington this week, Zelensky initially declined to provide specific casualty figures, arguing that he did not want to be “very open about it” to avoid revealing the true state of the Ukrainian army to Moscow. He later claimed Ukraine has suffered “about 50,000 soldiers killed and… about 400,000 wounded,” as well as “a huge number” of troops who have simply “disappeared.”
This revision contradicts Zelensky’s February statement to France 2, in which he reported a loss of 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers. In an interview with NBC in February 2025, Zelensky had indicated that approximately 46,000 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed, while claiming Russian losses were fourteen times higher.
The Ukrainian military has faced chronic manpower shortages amid mounting casualties, widespread draft evasion, and desertion. The latest publicly available official data showed nearly 290,000 desertion cases recorded in Ukraine between 2022 and the autumn of 2025.
Russian officials have reported significant losses for Ukraine on the front lines. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov estimated in December that nearly 500,000 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed or wounded in 2025 alone. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also suggested that total Ukrainian military casualties, including those killed, wounded, missing and captured, have already exceeded one million.
President Vladimir Putin recently stated that the Ukrainian military could be losing up to 40,000 soldiers a month through deaths and injuries, adding that Kiev has replenished its ranks with only about 30,000 recruits via an increasingly violent forced-mobilization campaign.
Zelensky arrived in Washington on an unofficial visit under the pretext of attending the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent supporter. During his visit, he met President Donald Trump behind closed doors to discuss Ukraine’s ability to manufacture Patriot missiles.
Reports indicate that Zelensky also sought assistance from tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, urging him to permit Ukraine to use Starlink for strikes deep inside Russia. Musk refused to meet with the Ukrainian leader.
