55,000 Ukrainian Soldiers Killed Since Russia’s Full-scale Invasion, Zelensky Says

President Volodymyr Zelensky made a rare reference to Ukraine’s casualty figures on Wednesday – revealing that 55,000 Ukrainian troops are officially listed as killed in action.

“In Ukraine, officially, on the battlefield, the number of soldiers killed is 55,000, including both professional soldiers and people who were mobilized,” he said in a pre-recorded interview with France 2, as per Le Monde.

A “great number of people” are also considered missing in action, Zelensky added.

This is the first time Zelensky has commented on Ukraine’s military death toll since February 2025, when he put the figure at 46,000.

On Jan. 27, the US Center for Strategic & International Studies think tank estimated that the total number of military deaths – including all the Ukrainian and Russian soldiers dead, injured, and missing – is approaching two million.

Of that number, Moscow is believed to have suffered roughly 1.2 million casualties, including more than 300,000 dead.

“No major power has suffered anywhere near these numbers of casualties or fatalities in any war since World War II,” the report reads.

The number of Ukrainian casualties is estimated to be somewhere between 500,000 and 600,000. Of this number, between 100,000 and 140,000 are believed to have been killed.

Also on Wednesday, Zelensky said that he expects a prisoner exchange to take place “in the near future” – as the first day of a second round of trilateral peace talks between the US, Ukraine, and Russia came to an end in Abu Dhabi.

Despite the shadow cast by massive Russian attacks on major cities this week, Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov described the talks – which are set to continue on Thursday – as “substantive and productive.” 

Russia’s war in Ukraine will enter its fifth year in a matter of weeks.