Russian mortality rates on the front lines are rising to levels that cannot be sustained by the current method of voluntary recruitment, Ukrainian figures suggest.“In December, 35,000 occupiers were eliminated – and this has been confirmed with video footage,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a Monday evening address. “In November, there were 30,000, and in October, 26,000 eliminated occupiers.”Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listUkrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii echoed that analysis.“The enemy lost over 33,000 personnel [in December]. This figure includes only confirmed video cases, but the actual losses of the occupiers are greater,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging service.That, he said, made December 2025, “the first month when the unmanned systems units of the Ukrainian Defence Forces neutralised approximately as many servicemen of the occupying army as Russia conscripted in a month”. (Al Jazeera)Russia has kept regular conscripts out of its war in Ukraine, recruiting volunteers on a contract basis to fight in its “special military operation”.On December 27, Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) chief Kyrylo Budanov told state broadcaster Suspilne that Russia had reached its quota of 403,000 recruits in 2025 – an average of 33,583 per month, and planned to increase that slightly to 34,083 per month in 2026.Ukraine’s casualty reports, if accurate, suggest they are no longer sustainable and may force Russia to start using its active reserve.The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, observed in November that forward reserve units in Belgorod had begun to receive heavy equipment such as howitzers, …
