0
0
President Donald Trump told reporters on the White House lawn Saturday that the war between Russia and Ukraine killed 25,000 people last month, and said he wants Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to reach a settlement with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Discover Top American-Made Products!
Support local craftsmanship with these high-quality, American-made items—shop now on Amazon!
Shop Now“Last month, 25,000 people died in the Ukraine-Russia war, okay? 25,000,” Trump said, according to Fox News. “The month before that, 32,000 people died … mostly soldiers, 97% soldiers.”
Later in the same remarks, he gave a slightly different sequence: “Two months ago, 33,000 people; this month, 25,000 people died.”
Trump did not say where the figures came from, and the Fox News report does not identify a source for them. They have not been independently verified.
For comparison, the report cites the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), which estimates that Russia alone has lost as many as 450,000 soldiers since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Trump said he had recently spoken with Zelenskyy and described both sides as moving toward an agreement. “I spoke to him a lot, and he’s going along and Putin’s going along. And someday, hopefully in the not too distant future, maybe before the heavy winter, they’ll make a deal,” he said.
He was more direct about what he expects from Kyiv. “Make a deal. I want him to settle with Putin,” Trump said of Zelenskyy.
He did not describe what terms such a settlement would include.
The remarks came a day after Zelenskyy announced that Trump had agreed to let Ukraine license and produce U.S. Patriot missile interceptors, a step Trump had previously hesitated to take.
“There are concrete agreements regarding Patriot licenses,” Zelenskyy said in his Friday announcement.
He continued, “At our meeting, President Trump stressed that he had made his final decision: Ukraine will receive licenses to produce Patriot missiles.”
Taken together, the two days of statements paired a new form of military support for Ukraine with public pressure from the president on Zelenskyy to negotiate an end to the fighting.
Trump offered no timeline beyond his hope for a deal before winter, and no new talks were announced alongside his comments.
Fox News Digital said it contacted the White House for comment. The report did not include any response from the Ukrainian or Russian governments to the casualty figures Trump cited, and neither government’s own count was given.
