In a first official estimate from a Ukraine official, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says 2,500-3,000 lives in the Ukrainian military have been lost amid the Russian invasion that began Feb. 24.
Zelenskyy's revelation came during a face-to-face interview with CNN's Jake Tapper in Kyiv on Friday.
While the estimate pales in comparison to those Zelenskyy says the Russian military has lost, an estimated 19,000-20,000, there are about 10,000 wounded Ukrainian troops that could increase the Ukraine casualty count.
"It's hard to say how many of them will survive," Zelenskyy told CNN.
While Ukrainian has estimated around 20,000 Russian casualties, the Russian Federation has only publicly acknowledged 1,351 troops killed as of March 25. The fighting outside of the east and south of Ukraine has been tempered some by Russia's resetting of forces, moving the to the contested regions of the east and south.
Also, the Ukraine death total above does not include citizens, which Zelenskyy has called on to take up arms against Russian forces. Ukraine and the internationally community has denounced deadly Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine since the war began.
"It is very difficult to talk about civilians, since the south of our country, where the villages and cities are blocked – Kherson, Berdyansk, Mariupol further to the east, and the area to the east, where Volnovakha is located – we simply do not know how many people died in the zone that is blocked," Zelenskyy added to CNN.