Some 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died since Russia’s full-scale invasion began, Volodymyr Zelensky said in a rare admission of the extent of the nation’s casualties.
In a social media post, Ukraine’s president said another 370,000 people had been injured, although the figure included soldiers who had been wounded multiple times.
He also claimed that 198,000 Russian soldiers were killed and another 550,000 injured.
The BBC has not been able to verify the figures for either side.
While both Kyiv and Moscow regularly publish estimates of the other side’s losses, they are reluctant to detail their own.
The new figure marks a significant increase in deaths in Ukraine since the beginning of the year.
Zelensky last gave an update on Ukrainian casualties in February, when he put the death toll at 31,000.
The President of Ukraine was said to have been forced to admit after US President-elect Donald Trump wrote on social networks that Ukraine had “ridiculously lost” 400,000 soldiers, while nearly 600,000 Russians were killed or injured. Trump did not say where these figures came from.
The incoming president, who has long made clear he wants to end the war, said too many lives had been “needlessly wasted”.
Zelensky’s estimate of Russia’s losses is similar to that of senior Western officials, who estimate Russia suffered about 800,000 casualties, both killed and wounded.
Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Russia suffered 45,680 casualties in November alone – more than in any month since its full-scale offensive began in February 2022.
According to the latest estimates of British Defense Intelligence, an average of 1,523 Russian soldiers are killed and wounded every day.
It is said that on November 28, Russia lost more than 2,000 troops in a single day, the first time this happened.
Moscow denies those numbers. In a statement, the Kremlin said that Ukraine’s losses were “many times higher” than Russia’s losses.
Outside of Russia, the consensus is on Russian casualty figures much higher than Ukraine due to their “meat grinder” tactics.
Recent developments in the war have only increased the death toll.
Russian forces continued to advance along the eastern front line, capturing and recapturing about 2,350 square kilometers of territory in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s western Kursk region since the beginning of the year.
Ukrainian forces maintain control of a small portion of Russian territory that was captured in a surprise attack on Russia in August.
The Russian Defense Ministry said more than 38,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed or wounded in Kursk alone – a figure that could not be verified.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014. Eight years later, it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and occupied territory in the south and east of the country.
Zelensky mentioned those killed in the war in Ukraine in a broader article about the eventual prospects of the war.
It followed talks in Paris on Saturday with French President Emmanuel Macron and Trump, who sought to capitalize on the view of about a quarter of Americans that the US is providing too much support to Ukraine.
During the election campaign, Trump repeatedly said he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine “in a day” — but has yet to specify how he plans to do that.
In his post, Zelensky emphasized that any peace agreement must be backed by effective international guarantees for his country’s security.
He said he told Mr Macron and Mr Trump that Kiev needed a “lasting peace” that Moscow would not “destroy in a few years”.
Responding to Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire, the Kremlin said it was ready to negotiate, but the conditions for a ceasefire were set by Russian President Vladimir Putin in June.
His demands include Ukraine giving up more territory and abandoning its ambitions to join NATO, which Kyiv has rejected.
