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

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks to the media during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (not pictured), amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine February 3, 2026. REUTERS/Anatolii Stepanov

PARIS, Feb ‌4 (Reuters) - The number of Ukrainian ‌soldiers killed on the battlefield ‌as a result of the country's war with Russia is estimated at 55,000, UkrainianPresident ‍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.

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.

(Reporting by ​Sudip Kar-Gupta in Paris, Editing by Franklin Paul, Ron Popeski and Matthew Lewis)