The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressed the human cost of the war, ongoing negotiations and Europe’s stance toward Russia during an interview with French public TV channel France 2 on Wednesday.
Visibly emotional, Zelensky shared figures that are rarely made public regarding the number of casualties.
“In Ukraine, officially, on the battlefield, the number of soldiers killed — whether career soldiers or mobilised — is 55,000. [Added to this is] a large number of people whom Ukraine considers to be missing,” he said.
That figure is disputed by several independent research centres, which estimate that the actual number of Ukrainian soldiers killed is significantly higher.
According to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, the estimate ranges between 100,000 and 140,000 killed since the start of the war in 2022.
As new trilateral talks are being held in Abu Dhabi, Zelensky denounced what he described as a pressure strategy by Moscow.
According to him, Russia “wants to inflict more suffering on Ukrainians so that they accept what our American friends call a ‘compromise’.” But, he added, “this is in reality an ultimatum from the Kremlin.”
