Putin’s forces suffering almost 40,000 casualties a month since November, say Western officials

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It is four years since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo / Getty Images

Russia is losing more troops than it can recruit for the first time since it invaded Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces were suffering almost 40,000 casualties a month since November, while recruiting up to 35,000 troops to sustain the invasion, Western officials said.

Ukraine’s intense counter-attacks have pushed Russia’s estimated casualty toll of killed, wounded and missing to more than 1.25 million.

Al Carns, the Britain’s Armed Forces Minister, said Russia’s effort to train fresh recruits was “becoming more and more difficult” with financial incentives by the Kremlin failing to entice new soldiers to join the front lines.

“People are realising that it’s a one-way ticket,” he said.

Efforts to end the war have recently stalled despite US pressure to secure a deal.

Speaking ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Putin was seeking to launch world war three, telling the BBC: “I believe he has already started it”.

The Telegraph revealed how Russia had bought properties near military sites across Europe as part of plans for a co-ordinated sabotage campaign, intelligence officials warned.

Suspicious property acquisitions near the MI6 headquarters in south London and the nearby US embassy, and RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, have raised fears of Russia stepping up its “hybrid war” through the new network.

Keir Starmer, the United Kingdom Prime Minister, said Britain would continue to support Ukraine, insisting: “Russia is not winning this war”.

Russia has tried to persuade volunteers from poorer regions to join the war by promising US$50,000 ($84,000) bonuses, but analysts question how long the economy can maintain the incentives.

The vast majority of Moscow’s losses – about 87% – came from drone strikes, which now dominate the battlefield, with one drone as effective as 22 rounds of heavy artillery, Carns said.

Russia’s losses have been exacerbated this month after Elon Musk banned the use of his Starlink satellite-based internet service.

Many of their drones can no longer fly and troops must communicate via radio, which is easier to intercept.

“The Russians’ intensity dropped when they were disconnected from Starlink,” a Ukrainian soldier told the Telegraph. “In two days, we regained Sosnivka [in Dnipropetrovsk] and are on the way to Huliapole [in Zaporizhzhia].”

General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK, warned that artificial intelligence and drones had revolutionised the battlefield, leaving troops on both sides exposed.

“This has led to the creation of a robotic kill zone, which today extends at least 25 kilometres deep,” he said.

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