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- 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers have died since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
- Zelenskyy’s statement on Saturday was the first time Ukraine has quantified the nation’s military casualties.
- The United Nations also said Saturday Ukraine has seen 1,581 civilian casualties, with 579 dead and 1,002 injured.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers have died since February 24, when Russia began its invasion.
Zelenskyy released the figure during a press briefing, marking the first time Ukraine’s government has released an estimate of the nation’s military casualties, according to The New York Times. Zelenskyy called Russia’s invasion “a war of annihilation.”
The United Nations also announced Saturday that Ukraine had seen 1,581 civilian casualties, with 579 dead and 1,002 injured. The UN said that 42 of those killed were children.
“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” the UN said.
The UN reported that those figures were just preliminary and “the actual figures are considerably higher.”
It’s less clear how many casualties Russia has suffered as part of its invasion. Ukrainian authorities said this week that more than 12,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, though Russia has pegged the figure at just under 500, The Washington Post reported.
Russia has also disputed the number of Ukrainian military casualties, saying 2,870 Ukrainian troops have been killed. according to the Russian state media outlet Tass. As Insider’s Julie Coleman previously reported, US officials have urged extreme skepticism towards Russia’s casualty figures, and warned about the difficulty in independently verifying both military and civilian casualties in active war zones.
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