Extract from ABC News
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia's full-scale invasion two years ago, giving the first official figure for more than a year.
Mr Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv that he could not disclose the number of wounded because it would help Russian military planning.
"31,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in this war. Not 300,000, not 150,000 … (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is lying there … But nevertheless, this is a big loss for us."
Ukraine has not put a number to its military losses since the end of 2022, when presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since the invasion on February 24.
Defence Minister of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov, said that each delayed Western aid shipment complicated the task of military planners and ultimately costing the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.
Battlefield casualties are a highly sensitive subject in a country trying to reform how it mobilises civilians into the army to regenerate its forces after last year's counteroffensive proved unable to break through Russian lines.
Commemorations to mark the second anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Saturday brought expressions of continued support, new bilateral security agreements and fresh aid commitments from Ukraine's Western allies.
But Mr Umerov said they still needed to deliver on their commitments if Ukraine was to have any chance of holding out against Russia.
"We look to the enemy: their economy is almost $US2 trillion [$3 trillion], they use up to 15 per cent official and non-official budget [funds] for the war, which constitutes over $US100 billion annually," he said.
"So basically, whenever a commitment doesn't come on time, we lose people, we lose territory."
Mr Umerov and Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi toured front-line combat posts earlier on Sunday amid a worsening ammunition shortage and dogged Russian attacks in the east.
They heard from front-line troops and "thoroughly analysed" the battlefield situation on their visit, Colonel-General Syrskyi said in a Telegram update.
He did not specify where exactly he and Mr Umerov went, but said that "the situation is difficult" for Ukrainian troops and "needs constant control" along many stretches of the front.
Ukraine has suffered setbacks on the battlefield, having lost the strategic eastern city of Avdiivka following intense battles this month, as military aid for Kyiv hangs in the balance in the US Congress.
An aid package worth $US61 billion promised by US President Joe Biden is being blocked by Republicans in Congress.
Mr Syrskyi earlier this month replaced Ukraine's top military commander, Valerii Zaluzhny, in the most significant shake-up of the top brass since the start of the full-scale war, after a long-expected counteroffensive last summer failed to produce major breakthroughs.
Russia still controls roughly a quarter of the country.
Russian shelling and rocket strikes on Sunday continued to pummel Ukraine's south and east, as local Ukrainian officials reported that at least two civilians were killed and a further eight suffered wounds in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson provinces.
A woman was wounded and a railway station turned into a smouldering ruin amid heavy shelling in the eastern city of Kostiantynivka, according to the head of the municipal military administration.
Ukraine's public broadcaster, Suspilne, cited local police as saying that the strikes also damaged an Orthodox church, over a dozen residential buildings and dozens of shops, a post office, schools and local government offices.
Russia and Ukraine also continued to trade nightly drone attacks, with Ukraine's air defences shooting down 16 of 18 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched overnight by Moscow.
A Russian drone on Sunday morning struck an unspecified facility in Ukraine's western Khmelnytskyi region, the regional military administration reported without giving details.
Meanwhile, Russia's defence ministry on Sunday morning reported it had downed seven Ukrainian drones — four over the Black Sea and three over Russia's southern Belgorod region.
It did not immediately mention any casualties or damage.
The most recent data from Russia's defence ministry, published in January 2023, pointed to just over 6,000 deaths, although reports from US and UK officials put that number significantly higher.
A US intelligence report declassified in mid-December 2023 estimated that 315,000 Russian troops had been killed or wounded in Ukraine.
If accurate, the figure would represent 87 per cent of the roughly 360,000 troops Russia had before the war, according to the report.
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