“I told president Trump that Putin fears only him and, perhaps, China. And that’s the truth – only decisiveness can bring this war to a just end and ensure lasting peace,” he wrote.
Earlier, Zelensky admitted the previously top-secret casualty numbers a few hours after Trump released the data as evidence that the war needed to stop.
He has previously insisted that figures were strictly confidential and could not be released because they may undermine public morale.
“Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine has lost 43,000 soldiers killed in action on the battlefield. There have been 370,000 cases of medical assistance for the wounded,” he said on his social media channels.
“In our army, approximately half of the soldiers wounded in action are later returning to the battlefields”.
As of August, Russia’s war has killed 11,743 civilians and injured 24,614, according to the UN, but the actual figures are thought to be around 750,000 casualties. A lack of access to Russian-occupied and front-line areas makes it nearly impossible to gather accurate numbers.
This high rate of attrition has been blamed on the Kremlin’s “swarm infantry tactics” against Ukrainian strongholds.
Military medics give first aid to wounded Ukrainian soldiers near Bakhmut, Ukraine, in January.Credit: AP
Zelensky also tried to differentiate between the Ukrainian and Russian casualty figures by claiming that Ukraine’s data included light injuries.
Analysts have said that the Russian army lost a record 1500 soldiers every day in November as Putin urged his forces to capture as much territory as possible ahead of an anticipated peace deal next year.
Zelensky said he would work with Macron’s proposal for peacekeeping troops to be deployed to Ukrainian territory to guarantee security while Ukraine was not in NATO, but he said he needed a “clear understanding” first of when his country would be admitted to both the European Union and the military alliance.
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Asked on NBC’s Meet the Press if he were actively working to end the nearly three-year war, Trump said, “I am.”
Trump refused to say if he had spoken to Putin since winning the election in November. “I don’t want to say anything about that because I don’t want to do anything that could impede the negotiation,” Trump said.
Zelensky said Ukraine “wants to end the war more than anyone else in the world”.
“And, of course, a diplomatic end to the war will save more lives,” he said in Kyiv.
“But I stressed to both President Macron and President Trump, you will see that Putin does not want to end this war. He must be forced to do it.
“He can be forced to do it only when Ukraine is strong ... This means being strong on the battlefield, having a strong army, having military packages, etc. This means long-range systems, like ATACMS, Taurus, Storm Shadow.”
With agencies
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