Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed for the first time an official figure for Ukrainian military casualties since the start of the Russian invasion two years ago. According to Zelensky, 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died in combat, not including those wounded or missing.
“That’s a lot of people for us,” Zelensky declared, rejecting estimates that put the death toll at up to 300,000. The president has also claimed that 180,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and half a million wounded in the war.
Regarding the possibilities of negotiation, Zelensky has been blunt: “It is not possible to talk to a deaf person who kills his opponents,” referring to Putin. The Ukrainian president only considers the possibility of negotiating if Putin accepts his defeat in the war.
Zelensky has reiterated his proposal for the Peace Formula as the only possible framework for negotiation. This plan calls for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, among other conditions. The president hopes to hold an international summit in Switzerland this spring to gain the international community’s support for his proposal. Zelensky has also lamented the death of “tens of thousands of civilians” in the Russian-occupied territories, many of them tortured before being killed. The exact number of civilian victims will only be known when the war ends.
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