Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that about 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, as US-mediated talks between Moscow and Kyiv continued with what Washington described as constructive engagement.
In an interview broadcast late Wednesday by French television channel France 2, Zelenskyy said the fighting has also left a large number of people missing. The figure marks an increase from his previous disclosure in early 2025, when he said 46,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed on the battlefield.
The war, now in its fourth year, has turned into a prolonged struggle of attrition along a roughly 1,000-kilometre front line stretching across eastern and southern Ukraine. Russian forces have sought to use their numerical advantage, while both sides continue to strike targets deep behind the front lines with long-range drones and missiles.
Zelenskyy’s estimate is significantly lower than figures published last month by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, which put Ukrainian military deaths at up to 140,000 by the end of last year. The same report estimated Russian troop deaths at as many as 325,000.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia regularly releases detailed or up-to-date information on military casualties. Russia’s Defense Ministry last issued an official death toll in September 2022, when it said fewer than 6,000 Russian soldiers had been killed.
The civilian toll has also continued to rise. Human Rights Watch said in a report released Wednesday that Ukrainian civilian casualties increased by 31 percent last year compared with 2024. According to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, nearly 15,000 civilians have been killed and more than 40,000 injured since the war began, up to last December.
Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts to end the conflict moved forward slowly. Ukrainian and Russian delegations held a second day of US-brokered talks on Thursday. US special envoy Steve Witkoff described the discussions as detailed and productive, saying the two sides agreed to exchange 314 prisoners, their first such swap in five months. However, the talks in Abu Dhabi produced no major breakthrough.
Witkoff said sustained diplomacy was yielding tangible results and helping advance efforts to end the war. Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council chief Rustem Umerov said Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner attended the talks, as they did during negotiations last month. Zelenskyy has previously described the future control of the Donbas industrial region as a central issue in any settlement.
NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, General Alexus Grynkewich, was also present at the meeting, according to a spokesperson speaking on condition of anonymity.
On the ground, hostilities continued. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived in Kyiv on Thursday for an official visit. In the Ukrainian capital, two people were injured overnight in Russian drone attacks, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. In the surrounding Kyiv region, authorities reported that a man suffered a chest wound from shrapnel.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 183 drones and two ballistic missiles overnight. Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, claimed its air defenses shot down 95 Ukrainian drones over several regions, the Azov Sea and Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.