Zelensky accuses US media of lying

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has dismissed a Wall Street Journal report on Ukrainian war casualties as fake news.

On Tuesday, the WSJ wrote that around 80,000 Ukrainian troops were killed and around 400,000 more were wounded. The journal cited “a confidential Ukrainian estimate” from unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

Reporters asked Zelensky on Friday to comment on WSJ’s estimate. “80,000? That is a lie. The actual figure is much lower than what has been published. Significantly so,” he claimed.

While Kiev does not provide regular updates on casualties, commanders and regular soldiers have repeatedly admitted heavy losses on the battlefield, particularly during the failed 2023 counteroffensive and the recent fighting in the Donbass.

In February, Zelensky said that 31,000 Ukrainian troops were killed in two years of fighting, without mentioning the number of wounded. The Washington Post cited an unnamed Ukrainian lawmaker in April as saying that Zelensky had “vastly downplayed” the death toll in order to preserve morale amid Ukraine’s flagging mobilization drive. Ukraine has since expanded its conscription laws, hoping to draft more men in the army.

The WSJ estimate of roughly 480,000 killed and wounded corresponds with an earlier estimate provided by Russia, which reported in April that Ukraine had lost around half a million troops. Kiev has since lost more than 15,650 soldiers during its invasion of Russia’s Kursk Region, which began in August, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Moscow does not reveal its own casualties. President Vladimir Putin, however, said in June that the battlefield losses were “one to about five” in Russia’s favor. He previously stated that the West was ready to “fight to the last Ukrainian” while using Kiev as a tool in its proxy war against Russia.