According to estimates by The Economist published on the 26th of November, between 60 000 and 100 000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the full-scale war, while another 400 000 are wounded and unable to continue fighting, on Wednesday, the 27th of November, reports The Kyiv Independent.
Kyiv has largely avoided revealing the number of casualties in the war, and only in February did President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admit that 31 000 Ukrainian fighters had been killed
The Economist had based its estimates on leaked or published intelligence reports, defence officials, researchers and open source intelligence.
The report indicates that Russia and Ukraine lost a larger share of their populations than the US lost during the Korean and Vietnam wars combined.
Nearly one in 20 Ukrainian men of fighting age has been killed or wounded as a result of the war, the report said.
In September, the Wall Street Journal gave a similar estimate, saying Ukraine had lost 80 000 dead and 400 000 wounded. Russian losses were estimated at 200 000 killed and 400 000 wounded.
It is almost impossible to establish the exact figures from both sides, as Kyiv and Moscow do not disclose casualty figures. The last time the Russian authorities provided information on casualties was in September 2022, when they stated that 5 937 soldiers had been killed.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on the other hand, has estimated that Russia’s total casualties by the 27th of November were more than 735 000. Russia is believed to have lost more soldiers in the war in Ukraine than in all wars since 1945 combined.
According to The Economist, the civilian death toll in Ukraine is likely to exceed tens of thousands, with 11 743 dead by summer 2024 according to UN figures, although the true death toll is believed to be higher due to restricted access to heavily affected areas such as Mariupol.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the US administration is putting pressure on Kyiv to reinforce its combat forces,
with a senior US official telling reporters on Wednesday that Ukraine should consider lowering the age of service from 25 to 18.
“Mobilisation and more soldiers could make a significant difference” on the battlefield, he said.
But a source in Zelenskyy’s office said the country does not have what it needs to supply the troops it is currently mobilising, saying “we cannot compensate our partners’ delays in decision-making and supply chains with the lives of our soldiers and the lives of our younger guys.”
Another Ukrainian official said that US officials acknowledge attracting younger soldiers is politically problematic for the Zelenskyy government, with Ukraine considering offering incentives for younger people to sign up for an non-mandatory recruitment campaign.
The senior US official said the US would continue to supply artillery, missiles, vehicles and air defence systems while Biden was still in office and Ukraine “now has a healthy stockpile of critical weapons”, but the “most critical problem” was the lack of young soldiers because the heroic frontline units could not “rotate out to rest, refit, train and re-equip”.