Fifty-five thousand Ukrainian soldiers killed on battlefield, Zelenskiy tells French TV

The number of Ukrainian soldiers killed on the battlefield as a result of the country’s war with Russia is estimated at 55,000, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told France 2 TV on Wednesday.

“In Ukraine, officially the number of soldiers killed on the battlefield – either professionals or those conscripted – is 55,000,” said Zelenskiy, in a pre-recorded interview that was broadcast on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

Zelenskiy, whose comments were translated into French, added that on top of that casualty figure was a “large number of people” considered officially missing.

Zelenskiy had previously cited a figure for Ukrainian war dead in an interview with the U.S. television network NBC in February 2025, saying that more than 46,000 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed on the battlefield.