What was claimed
US news outlet ABC reported that one million Ukrainian soldiers have died on the battlefield.
Our verdict
False. The claim is based on manipulated footage of an ABC News report, and official sources and independent estimates suggest far fewer casualties.
AAP FACTCHECK - As the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches, a manipulated video is spreading inflated claims about how many soldiers have been killed by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
A widely-shared post features an ABC News (US) report which supposedly states that one million Ukrainian soldiers have died on the battlefield since the February 2022 invasion.
The claim has been shared by pro-Russian US-based commentator Jackson Hinkle, who has a history of spreading falsehoods on social media.
“ABC News ADMITS that nearly 1 MILLION Ukrainian soldiers have DIED thus far,” Mr Hinkle said in an X post on December 12.
His post links to another X post containing a video of an ABC News segment with the caption: “‘About 1 million Ukrainian soldiers have died’ — ABC spills the beans on the Ukrainian war.”
The footage shows an ABC News package that appears to confirm the claim, with audio stating the same figure.
However, AAP FactCheck identified the original ABC News report from March 2023 about a non-profit that was helping injured Ukrainian soldiers to get prosthetics.
The original video does not mention one million Ukrainian deaths and its audio and visuals have been manipulated in the recent posts.
An unverified Facebook account with the same name and photo as Mr Hinkle also made the claim in a post.
“It’s shocking that ABC is reporting this, but what’s more shocking is over 1 million soldiers have lost their lives in Ukraine because the Deep State and globalists are more interested in covering up their nefarious activities and disallowing Zelenskyy to broker peace with Putin!”, another Facebook user said sharing the fake video.
Credible sources show the number of Ukrainians killed in action is significantly lower than the one million figure.
In a Telegram post on December 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine has lost 43,000 soldiers since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, with 370,000 reported injuries.
Zelenskiy also claimed that 198,000 Russian soldiers had been killed and 550,000 injured.
The BBC reported the figures align with Western intelligence assessments of higher Russian casualties due to their “meat grinder” battlefield tactics.
Various reports suggest that Ukrainian casualty numbers are higher than official figures, but still far below one million.
A report from The Economist in November 2024 estimated that between 60,000 and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the war began.
The publication based its analysis on intelligence leaks, defence sources and open-source intelligence but acknowledged that precise figures are difficult to verify.
Data from UA Losses, a website cataloguing Ukrainian soldier deaths, estimates that more than 66,000 have died since the conflict began, based on public reports.
The New York Times reported in October that a US official said more than 57,500 Ukrainians have been killed since the war began.
The Verdict
False – The claim is inaccurate.
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