Around 400,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed or maimed in bitter fighting with Russia since Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Volodymyr Zelensky revealed this week.
‘Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine has lost 43,000 soldiers killed in action on the battlefield,’ the Ukrainian President said on social media.
‘There have been 370,000 cases of medical assistance for the wounded,’ he wrote, adding that ‘half’ of wounded troops return to the battlefield.
The shocking casualty numbers – which are still lower than many Western estimates – come as Russia continues to make significant gains in Eastern Ukraine – albeit at a heavy human cost.
Both Russia and Ukraine have been reluctant to publish official casualty figures but Western officials say the grinding positional warfare has seen record losses for both sides, with tens of thousands killed and injured each month.
Zelensky also said this week that he is open to the potential deployment of Western troops in Ukraine to guarantee the country’s security as part of a broader effort to end the almost three-year war.
The deployment would be a step toward Ukraine joining NATO, Zelensky said in a post on his Telegram channel.
‘But before that, we must have a clear understanding of when Ukraine will be in the European Union and when Ukraine will be in NATO,’ he added.
His proposals tread a delicate diplomatic path amid international efforts to find a way of ending Europe’s biggest conflict since the Second World War at a time when Russia has gained an upper hand in the fighting.
Ukrainian soldiers fire D-30 artillery in the direction of Toretsk, Ukraine, 8 December 2024
Medical staff of the Hospitallers carry a wounded Ukrainian soldier into their medical bus for transport to a hospital, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, 06 December 2024
Ukrainian soldiers unload ammunition from an armoured vehicle at their fighting position in the direction of Toretsk
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks with Leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) during their meeting in Kyiv on December 9, 2024
US President-elect Donald Trump is seeking to bring about a ceasefire and met with Zelensky in Paris on Saturday.
But the Ukrainian President said on Monday that he would approach outgoing US President Joe Biden about Ukraine’s possible NATO membership because he is still in office, while Trump does not yet have ‘legal rights’ to decide on the matter.
Speaking of Zelensky, President-elect Trump said: ‘He wants to have a cease-fire. He wants to make peace. We didn’t talk about the details.’
Trump noted that Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s forces are taking heavy losses in Ukraine.
‘I’m formulating a concept of how to end that ridiculous war,’ he said.
The possibilities of Ukraine joining the 32-nation NATO military alliance and of Western troops being stationed on its soil have been deeply divisive and contentious issues since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022.
At their summit in Washington in July, NATO declared Ukraine on an ‘irreversible’ path to membership, but stopped short of inviting the country in.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a ‘just and enduring’ peace with Russia following a meeting with Donald Trump
Medical staff of the Hospitallers carry a wounded Ukrainian soldier into their medical bus for transport to a hospital, in the Donetsk region
Ukrainian soldiers fire BM-21 artillery at their artillery fighting position in the direction of Kurakhove, Donetsk Oblast
A serviceman of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ 24th Mechanized Brigade fires his weapon in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine
The US and Germany have baulked at Ukraine joining NATO while at war with Russia.
One obstacle has been the view that Ukraine’s borders would need to be clearly demarcated before it could join so that there can be no mistaking where the alliance’s pact of mutual defence would come into effect.
Russia’s invading army occupies about one-fifth of Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron floated the idea of Western troops on the ground in Ukraine last February.
But it raised the same fears of escalation that have led Western leaders to place limits on weapons supplies and permissions for their use.
European military heavyweights Germany and Poland immediately said they would not send troops to Ukraine.
Macron declined to provide details about which nations were considering sending troops, saying he preferred to maintain some ‘strategic ambiguity’.
Ukraine’s forces are weathering a months-long onslaught by Russia centred on the eastern Donetsk region, where Kyiv’s defences are creaking.
Zelensky said on X that over the past week alone, Russia launched nearly 500 powerful guided bombs, more than 400 attack drones and almost 20 missiles of various types against Ukraine.
‘Ukraine wants this war to end more than anyone else. No doubt, a diplomatic resolution would save lives. We do seek it,’ he said.
Ukrainian soldier during infantry training in a building at an undetermined location in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on December 2
Ukrainian servicemen of the mobile air defense unit fire a machine gun at Russian drones during night patrol on December 2
Putin is seen delivering a threat to the West about the capabilities of his latest missiles
Meanwhile, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s challenger in the upcoming German election, Friedrich Merz, said that there is a ‘basic consensus’ in Germany on continuing to provide military aid to Ukraine.
But during a visit to Kyiv, he also highlighted differences with Scholz, who has refused to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine as he insists that everything must be done to prevent a wider war between the West and Russia.
Merz has been open to providing them and allowing Ukraine to hit military targets inside Russia, and has urged Scholz to send the Taurus system on several occasions.
‘President Zelensky knows our position on Taurus missiles… As it stands today, at the beginning of December 2024, it remains the same,’ Merz said in Kyiv.
Merz, who arrived by train from Poland in the morning, earlier said on social media that ‘the war in Ukraine must end as soon as possible. Only if Ukraine can defend itself will Putin enter into negotiations’.
As he met Zelensky, Merz noted that France, the UK and the US have a different position from the current German government.
‘Our position is clear, as is that of my parliamentary group: we want to put your army in a position to reach military bases in Russia – not the civilian population, not the infrastructure, but the military targets from which your country is being fought,’ he said.
‘With this range restriction, we are forcing your country to fight with one hand behind its back, and that is not our position,’ he added.
