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“No Mobilization Resource”: Russia Running Out of Soldiers in Occupied Regions of Ukraine, Intelligence Says
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Russia’s efforts to mobilize people in the occupied territories of Ukraine are no longer effective due to a lack of available manpower, a representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence said in an interview with Radio Svoboda’s “Donbas Realii” project.
Andrii Cherniak, a spokesperson for the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, said most able-bodied men in the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions have either already been forcibly mobilized, killed, or are no longer capable of serving.
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“There is no longer any full-fledged mobilization resource on the temporarily occupied territories, especially in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, that is capable of fighting or even holding a weapon in their hands. The men who remain there are only able to maintain certain infrastructure, but they can no longer become members of any military formations,” Cherniak said.
He added that the mobilization potential in the parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions occupied after 2022 is also limited.
According to Cherniak, Russian authorities carried out forced passportization followed by compulsory mobilization in those areas.
“There was forced passportization, then forced mobilization, and that’s it, people were taken. If a person did not manage to escape or leave for the territory controlled by Ukraine, or somehow go to Russia, then of course they were taken into the ranks of the Russian armed forces, and unfortunately we can say that this person is most likely no longer alive,” he said.
Russia's forced mobilization campaign in the temporarily occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk is increasingly characterized by the use of conscripts as expendable resources, with little regard for their welfare, amid a shortage of manpower.
According to the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD), this large-scale mobilization effort is rapidly evolving into what Ukrainian officials describe as the systematic elimination of the local population.
The CCD reports that men from occupied areas of Donbas, including those with disabilities or serious medical conditions, are being conscripted into frontline assaults with little regard for their well-being. These individuals are often used as expendable resources, pushed into dangerous situations to probe Ukrainian positions and absorb initial enemy fire.
Internal testimonies from soldiers in these units reveal that many of the conscripts are deployed without medical screening or proper military training. Russian commanders have admitted to the severity of the situation, acknowledging that many of the new recruits are ill-prepared for combat.
As the conditions worsen, reports of unrest within these units have emerged, with personnel feeling increasingly discarded, treated as expendable rather than as soldiers. This growing dissatisfaction underscores the dire reality of Russia's forced mobilization in these occupied territories.
As of November 2025, Russia has forcibly mobilized 46,327 Ukrainians from the temporarily occupied regions, according to Dmitro Usov, Secretary of the Coordination Headquarters for Prisoner of War Affairs.
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