Ukraine's tech edge turns Russia's 'meat assaults' into catastrophic losses

According to data from the Main Intelligence Directorate, the irrecoverable and sanitary losses of the invading Russian forces during 2025 alone amounted to over 418,000 soldiers, which equals the strength of nearly 35 divisions.

The largest personnel losses in 2025 were suffered in January – 48,240 soldiers. 

"Russia's losses over the year increased from 14,000 to 35,000 killed per month, reported Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the economic forum in Davos."

"Russian losses are the largest they have ever had. So I'm simply sharing real statistics with you, and it is – 35,000 killed per month, 35,000 soldiers. Last year at this time it was about 14,000," said Zelenskyy.

This is caused by a number of factors, particularly innovative technologies of Ukrainian defense industry, low level of training, and the decline in morale and fighting spirit of the Russian forces.

A number of factors led to the enormous losses of the Russian army.

It was Ukraine's Defense Forces that introduced the world's first so-called kill zone. This refers to innovative Ukrainian developments in both FPV drones and reconnaissance drones. Moreover, I note that the width of the "kill zone" over the past six months has increased from 5 km to 10, and sometimes reaches 20 km. This blocks the ability of Russian forces to transfer personnel and equipment directly to the line of combat contact. 

The capabilities of the Ukrainian side to destroy enemy manpower and armored vehicles have increased many times over. So the first factor is the innovative technologies of Ukraine's Defense Forces.

According to Russian assessments, the Defense Forces currently have the capability in certain sections of the front to use up to 14 FPV drones against a single target, particularly against a serviceman of the Russian Armed Forces. Russian forces do not have such capability and such quantity of FPV drones.

The second factor is the low level of training of Russian army soldiers.

The main losses are suffered by Russian assault units, where the mortality rate reaches 80%. And their core consists of the so-called "K" special contingent. That is, Russian convicts who, according to the decree of the Russian dictator, have the right to sign a contract with the ministry of defense of the occupying country even in the courtroom.

The second category is forcibly mobilized individuals from occupied areas of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The age range is from 18 to 65 years. Notably, they practically do not undergo combat coordination and are immediately thrown into assault units. This is precisely what causes the high losses of Russian forces – up to 35,000 per month.

The third factor that allows Ukraine's Defense Forces to inflict colossal losses on Russian forces is the low morale and fighting spirit of Russian assault units.

First and foremost, this is the tactics of Russian forces.

In recent months, they have again begun using the so-called "banzai attack" tactics or "meat assaults". Note that at the moment of intensification of diplomatic efforts by the Ukrainian and American sides, Russian forces went on overtly doomed attacks on positions of Ukraine's Defense Forces with mass use of both armored vehicles and personnel.

"In particular, the Russian side itself was forced to acknowledge them as murderous in both the literal and figurative sense of the word. This is almost the main component of Russian army losses. These are the so-called "meat assaults", what Russians call "we won't worry about the price"."

It is worth noting that the tactics of so-called "banzai attacks" have actually exhausted themselves, which Russian forces themselves acknowledge. 

Thus, this combination of factors produces those figures of Russian losses that were announced by the American president and Ukrainian intelligence – up to 35,000 personnel of the Russian army.

Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that Russian troops have been unable to increase their grouping for a long time, as the Defense Forces monthly destroy more Russian forces than the aggressor country conscripts.

As reported earlier, newly appointed Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov stated that to accelerate the end of the war, it is necessary to bring monthly losses of Russian forces to 50,000.

Specially for Espreso

About the author. Dmytro Sniehyriov, military expert, co-chair of the Public Initiative Prava Sprava.

The editorial office does not always share the opinions expressed by the authors of blogs.