President Volodymyr Zelensky has reported that 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the war with Russia that has lasted four years.

On Wednesday, Zelensky gave the number in an interview with France 2 television. Moreover, he said,” a big part of the population is regarded as officially missing.”

Although both Kyiv and Moscow have periodically released estimates of the other, neither has been keen on describing its own. Nevertheless, the BBC has established the identity of nearly 160,000 individuals who died fighting on the side of Russia in Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump has been at the forefront of the bid to terminate the war that erupted as a full-scale invasion of its neighbour by Russia on 22 February 2022.

On Thursday, Trump’s son-in-law and special US envoy, Jared Kushner, and Steve Witkoff, continued negotiations with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, on a second day, in an attempt to hash out the terms of the proposed peace deal by the US.

“This was the second of a series of three-way meetings, and the discussions were detailed and fruitful,” as Steve Witkoff wrote on X, but he said that a lot of work still lies ahead.

The hardest concern is territory, and Russia required that Ukraine give up the remaining eastern industrial area of Donbas that Moscow does not possess.

Zelensky also mentioned that the negotiations had not been that simple, and Ukraine would be as constructive as possible, though it desired quicker outcomes.

Trump frequently states that thousands of Ukrainians and Russians are killed each week unnecessarily. Estimates are also published by the Western intelligence agencies, and they cannot be confirmed.

The most recent time Zelensky provided an update regarding the casualties in Ukraine was in December 2024, when he estimated that there were 43,000 deaths.

During his interview with French television, he stated the following: In Ukraine, officially, there are 55,000 soldiers killed on the battlefield, either professional soldiers or conscripted soldiers.

The documented figure of the dead presented by Zelensky is much less than the total casualties of Ukraine. As he himself says, a large number of people.

The interior ministry of Ukraine counted over 70,000 individuals as officially lost – both soldiers and civilians – as of six months ago, but the separation is never provided.

The actual number might be larger – the data on the number of dead is very sensitive and has a morale-building impact.

The Ukrainian cemeteries are full of military graves, with blue and yellow national flags in all of them. On the headstones, they usually have the picture of the soldier in uniform engraved.

“We also encountered mothers who were still in search of their sons who had not come back from the battle.”

In many cases, they cling to the hope that the men are prisoners of war, who have been captured and are detained somewhere in Russia, but not on any official lists.

Organisations such as the Red Cross have the least access to Russian prisons.

The second option is that the missing men were killed and their bodies have not been retrieved in the territory now under Russian control, or the other possibility is that their remains have not been discovered through the use of DNA tests.

Occasionally, the two nations exchange bodies, too, with their prisoners of war, but not since last August.

“In the Abu Dhabi discussions, another swap prisoner agreement was achieved, ” Witkoff proclaimed. “It entailed the transfer of 314 prisoners – the first transfer of prisoners in five months,” he explained.

“Although there is still much to do, actions such as this one show that the continued diplomatic involvement is already bearing real fruits and making progress towards the goal of ending the war in Ukraine,” Witkoff added.

Zelensky substantiated that 157 Ukrainians had been freed, and that he would never give up on their efforts to send all back home. The Ministry of Defence in Russia also demonstrated images of its soldiers once they were freed by the Ukrainians.

The US European Command declared at the conclusion of the negotiations that the US and Russia had agreed to restore high-level military-to-military dialogue, which had been suspended in the fall of 2021.

The statement added, “this channel will give them the steady military-to-military contact, as the parties proceed to a lasting peace.”

Abu Dhabi negotiations were initiated when Russia resumed its assaults on Ukraine following a week-long hiatus, a week which Trump had requested Russian President Vladimir Putin to note when Ukraine was engulfed in a severe cold.

It has been attacking the energy sector of the country, leaving thousands of people without power and heating as the temperatures fell to -20C (-20F).