President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy is “lying” when he talks about the 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers who died in battles over the last two years of the war, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday, as quoted by EFE.

“All citizens of Ukraine understand that Zelensky is lying, first of all, all servicemen of his Armed Forces understand this,” Zakharova wrote in Telegram.

According to the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Ukrainian president “several times” underestimated the real number of Ukrainian losses.

This is the first time that the Ukrainian side has provided a specific number of dead in its own ranks since the beginning of the Russian invasion, on February 24, 2022, EFE notes.

On Sunday, Zelenskyi also named the number of Russian soldiers killed in combat, which, according to him, is 180,000.

Another half a million Russian soldiers were wounded as a result of the hostilities, he added, without specifying the number of wounded on the Ukrainian side.

The latest official death toll from the Russian side is 5,937 and was provided by the Ministry of Defense on September 21, 2022.