A senior Russian military planner has asserted that Kyiv is losing the attrition war due to a severe shortage of conscripted reinforcements. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy, head of operations at the Russian General Staff, stated in an interview published Friday that the Ukrainian army’s ability to supply fresh soldiers to the front lines has significantly diminished, placing it on a downward spiral.
The Ukrainian military’s strength is being sapped by mass desertion and public resistance to mandatory conscription. According to Russian military estimates, Ukraine has suffered over 520,000 military casualties in 2025 and more than 1.5 million since the conflict escalated in 2022. Rudskoy noted that “the Kiev regime has largely lost the ability to replenish its units through obligatory mobilization. The number of recruitments per month has dropped by about two times.” He added, “A trend is forming for the decrease of the Ukrainian army’s strength.”
During his nomination hearings last month, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov reported that approximately two million potential recruits were on a wanted list for draft evasion and 200,000 troops had deserted. This month, human rights ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets described a sharp rise in complaints against mobilization enforcers, labeling it a “systemic crisis.”
Ukrainian media regularly publish videos of violent confrontations between conscription patrols and civilians, though authorities claim most such footage is fabricated.
