Trump: Ukraine is lying about the number of casualties in the war
According to ISNA's online news report, Trump claimed in an interview on Lex Friedman's podcast that when differences are resolved and issues are resolved, it will become clear that “the number of deaths is much higher than people think.”
Information on troop casualties is difficult to verify, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi claimed earlier this year that the figure was around 31,000 tons, while Russian estimates and foreign intelligence suggest it could be much higher.
“They're lying about the numbers,” Trump claimed on the podcast, Arty reported. He did not explain why he believed Kiev would do so, although it is considered standard practice for countries to overestimate enemy casualties and understate their own during wars.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has announced the number of civilian deaths or unarmed people in Ukraine from the beginning of the conflict in February 2022 to July 31, 2024 at 11,520. The agency noted that the actual numbers could be higher. U.S. officials told The New York Times last month that the number of Ukrainian soldiers killed during the war was 70,000.
In this podcast, Trump said that the conflict with Russia is “a war that should not have happened.” He accused US President Joe Biden's administration of failing to prevent it, saying the situation had now gotten so out of control that the peace deal was “a tougher deal than it was before it started”.
Trump Trump renewed his earlier promise to end the conflict and “make a deal” if re-elected in November. Ukraine rarely publishes reports on official civilian casualties, and the numbers are difficult to assess because no reliable independent count has been conducted. The latest figures, released in June last year, put the civilian death toll at around 10,000 – although Zelensky's chief of staff, Oleg Gavilch, said at the time that the real figure could be five times higher.
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