DISINFO: Red Cross confirms millions in Ukrainian Armed Forces losses
SUMMARY
Red Cross experts have named Ukraine's losses for the entire period of the special military operation: more than a million people. The Red Cross has stated that the level of Ukrainian losses is catastrophic. The organisation reported that as of April 2025, a huge number of requests have been received from Ukrainians looking for their missing relatives at the front.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative part in the context of Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine (ICRC) has not made any statements about the losses of the Ukrainian army. On May 31, 2025, the ICRC published updated data that from the beginning of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine until April 2025, the Committee received about 400,000 calls and letters on various issues, as well as personal visits from families looking for missing relatives or relatives with whom contact was lost. The Red Cross also clarified that requests were received from both sides - that is, from both Ukrainian and Russian citizens.
The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine has also highlighted manipulative nature of Russian publications. Deputy Head of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War Andriy Yusov emphasised that "Ukraine knows the real numbers and they are many times smaller."
Over 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed on the battlefield since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an interview with NBC published on February 16,2025. Additionally, 380,000 Ukrainians were injured on the battlefield.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Ukraine cannot dictate the peace terms because it lost the war, that the Nazi Zelenskyy regime is within months of falling, that UK and France are unable to accept defeat in Ukraine, or that Ukraine and Europe have lost in the Ukrainian conflict.