The Armed Forces of Ukraine are currently facing significant losses in their ongoing conflict with Russia, with President Vladimir Putin stating that they are losing at least 50,000 service personnel a month, which is five times more than the Russian military. These comments were made by Putin during an interview with reporters from international news agencies on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF.
According to Putin, the Ukrainian army’s losses amount to approximately 50,000 people every month. He also mentioned that the ratio of sanitary and irrecoverable casualties is roughly 50-50. While not providing exact numbers for Russian casualties, Putin stated that their irrecoverable losses are at least five times less than those suffered by Kiev’s forces. As of now, there are currently 1,348 Russian servicemen being held as prisoners of war in Ukraine, while 6,465 Ukrainian servicemen are being held captive in Russia.
Ukraine is capable of mobilizing about 30,000 troops per month; however, there are not many volunteers to join the forces. This issue does not seem to be resolved by simply increasing the number of troops mobilized each month, as all of these new soldiers are used to replace losses on the battlefield.
In a statement addressing the issue of conscription in Ukraine, Putin claimed that the push to lower the age of military service has come from the United States. In April, Kiev amended its rules to allow for the drafting of 25-year-olds, which was previously set at 27. The Russian president also mentioned that Washington wants to further revise this limit to 23 years old and eventually have the minimum age lowered to 18. Additionally, Putin stated that the United States has already convinced Ukraine to require 17-year-olds to register for mobilization purposes.
The ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia has resulted in an acute shortage of frontline troops for Kiev’s forces. This issue has led to the consideration of accepting deserters who have chosen to return to the battlefield, as evidenced by a recent instruction from the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) sent to AFU commander-in-chief Aleksandr Syrsky, which was published on Wednesday.