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A Ukrainian civic group has reported that nearly 25,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died since Russia’s February 2022 invasion, based on open-source information, estimating the total number of fatalities to exceed 30,000. This number contrasts US reports that indicate the death toll is roughly 70,000 and Russian reports that claim the death toll of Ukrainian soldiers is over 100,000.

Historian Yaroslav Tynchenko and volunteer Herman Shapovalenko, writing in the Ukrainian journal Tyzhden, based their findings on data from Shapovalenko’s Book of Memory project. They have confirmed 24,500 combat and non-combat deaths using publicly available sources. The authors acknowledge that this number is likely an underestimation, considering many of the 15,000 troops listed as missing are probably deceased.

Tynchenko and Shapovalenko estimate that the actual number of fatalities, both in combat and non-combat situations, exceeds 30,000, and they also suggest that up to 100,000 troops might have been wounded.

This report comes as Ukraine braces itself for a prolonged conflict with Russia, with its top general describing the war as becoming static and attritional. The Ukrainian counteroffensive, initiated in June, has made only limited progress in the south and east.

Just like Russia, Ukraine maintains strict confidentiality over its military casualties, viewing the disclosure of such figures as potentially detrimental to its war efforts.