Overview
- Speaking in Brussels, Mark Rutte stressed he was referring to Russians killed, not wounded, and called the toll unsustainable.
- Britain’s defense ministry recently estimated more than 1.1 million Russian battlefield casualties since 2022, averaging about 1,000 per day.
- A CSIS analysis found Russia seized about 5,000 square kilometers since January 2024 even as total casualties neared 1 million, and Ukrainian officials say attack drones now account for most kills.
- Analysts report the Kremlin is sidestepping large-scale mobilization by leaning on covert and informal recruitment, with U.S. and Ukrainian assessments putting monthly intake at roughly 30,000–36,000 troops.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said recent Russian strikes on energy facilities across the Dnipro, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions left hundreds of thousands without power and heat.