**Ukraine’s Military Casualties Revealed**
Since Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the country has lost over 45,000 soldiers on the battlefield. This is according to an interview with President Volodymyr Zelensky published on February 4.
Zelensky also revealed that there have been a total of 390,000 cases of soldiers sustaining wounds on the battlefront. However, he noted that the actual number of wounded soldiers is less, as some soldiers sustained multiple wounds during separate incidents.
**Wounded Soldiers Returning to the Battlefield**
In previous statements, Zelensky said that approximately half of the soldiers wounded in action later return to the battlefield. This means that many Ukrainian soldiers have been injured and then returned to fight again.
**Russian Casualties Higher Than Expected**
Comparing Ukraine’s casualty count to that of Russia, Zelensky estimated that approximately 350,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, with between 600,000 to 700,000 instances of Russian soldiers sustaining wounds on the battlefield. According to Ukraine’s General Staff estimates, Russia has lost a total of 842,930 troops since the start of the war.
**Uncertainty Over Missing and Captured Soldiers**
Zelensky noted that it is unclear how many thousands of men are currently held as prisoners of war compared to those missing in action. He added that Ukraine is working to establish the precise number of missing and captured soldiers.
**Russia’s Efforts to Mitigate Casualties**
Moscow has made an effort to recruit foreigners into their army, including hundreds of Yemeni mercenaries. Russia has also cooperated with North Korea, with Pyongyang reportedly dispatching 10,000-12,000 soldiers to assist Russia in its war against Ukraine. However, after The New York Times reported that North Korean troops had been pulled from the front, a Special Operations Forces spokesperson confirmed that Ukraine’s special forces had not faced Pyongyang’s soldiers for three weeks.
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