- Category
- Latest news
“Russia Mobilizes 40–45 Thousand Troops Every Month”: Zelenskyy Says Ukraine Must Inflict Heavy Losses
- Authors
![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
Russia is mobilizing between 40,000 and 45,000 people every month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the New York Post.
According to his post on X on March 17, Ukraine must inflict comparable losses to prevent the Russian army from increasing in size.
We bring you stories from the ground. Your support keeps our team in the field.
As reported by Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s objective is to stop Russia from expanding its military capacity and continuing its aggression by maintaining pressure on Russian forces on the battlefield.
“Russia mobilizes 40–45 thousand people every month. We must eliminate roughly the same number of troops so that the Russian army doesn’t grow in size. Eliminate them simply so that Russia cannot expand its aggression,” Zelenskyy said.
He added that Ukrainian forces have inflicted heavy losses on Russian troops in recent months.
Russia mobilizes 40–45 thousand people every month. We must eliminate roughly the same number of troops so that the Russian army doesn’t grow in size. Eliminate them simply so that Russia cannot expand its aggression. Over the past three months, we eliminated 30, 35, and 28…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 17, 2026
“Over the past three months, we eliminated 30, 35, and 28 thousand Russian soldiers respectively. That is almost 100 thousand people. Just imagine how much Russia is sacrificing for this war,” he said.
In a separate report, Ukrainian intelligence has obtained classified Russian documents indicating that the Russian army’s irreversible losses have surpassed 1.3 million personnel with a growing share of those losses accounted for by fatalities, including those killed and severely wounded.
The information was announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on March 10 after receiving a report from the head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, Oleh Ivashchenko.
According to report, the ratio between killed and wounded has also changed, with 62% of Russian losses classified as deaths and 38% as injuries.
The high casualty figures come as Ukrainian officials assess that Russia’s ability to achieve its military goals remains limited. According to Pavlo Palisa, deputy head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, Russia would need about a year and a half to fully seize the Donbas region, and could do so only at the cost of losing the entire grouping of Russian forces currently deployed in occupied Ukrainian territories.
He added that during 2025 Russian troops captured less than 1% of Ukraine’s total territory, while suffering what he described as extremely high casualties, with losses exceeding 450,000 soldiers.
-29ed98e0f248ee005bb84bfbf7f30adf.jpg)
-72b63a4e0c8c475ad81fe3eed3f63729.jpeg "Photo of Cyril Barabaltchouk")
