War of attrition and “meat assaults”: how innovations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine led to colossal losses of the occupiers

The Russian army is suffering catastrophic losses at the front. Over the past 24 hours alone, the Ukrainian Defense Forces have destroyed over 1,235,060 Russian invaders.

According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, the irretrievable and medical losses of the Russian occupation forces during 2025 alone amounted to over 418,000 soldiers, which is equal to the number of almost 35 divisions. The enemy suffered the largest losses of personnel in 2025 in January – 48,240 soldiers.

Russia’s losses over the year have increased from 14,000 to 35,000 killed per month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the Davos economic forum.

“Russian losses are the largest they have ever had. So I’m just sharing with you the real statistics, and they are 35,000 killed per month, 35,000 soldiers. Last year this month it was about 14,000,” Zelensky said.

This is due to a number of factors, including innovative technologies of the Ukrainian defense industry, low level of training, and a decline in the morale and fighting spirit of the invaders. A number of factors led to huge losses of the Russian occupation army.

It was the Ukrainian Defense Forces that introduced the world’s first so-called kill zone. We are talking about innovative Ukrainian developments of both FPV drones and reconnaissance drones. In addition, I would like to note that the width of the “kill zone” over the past six months has increased from 5 km to 10, and sometimes even up to 20 km. This blocks the ability of the Russian occupiers 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. That is, the first factor is the innovative technologies of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
According to the Russian side, the Defense Forces currently have the ability to use up to 14 FPV drones on individual targets, including a Russian serviceman, on certain sections of the front. The occupiers do not have such an ability and such a number of FPV drones.

The second factor is the low level of training of the soldiers of the Russian army. The main losses are borne by the enemy’s assault units, where the mortality rate is up to 80%. And their backbone is the so-called special contingent “K”. That is, Russian prisoners who, according to the decree of the Russian dictator, have the right to sign an agreement with the Ministry of Defense of the occupying country even in the courtroom.

The second category is those forcibly mobilized from the occupied areas of Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The age limit is from 18 to 65 years. It is noteworthy that they practically do not undergo combat training and are immediately thrown into assault units. This is what causes the high losses of the occupiers – up to 35 thousand per month.

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

First of all, this is the tactic of the Russian occupiers. In recent months, they have again begun to use the so-called “banzai attacks” or “meat assaults” tactics. Note that at the time of the intensification of diplomatic efforts by the Ukrainian and American sides, the Russian occupiers launched frankly unsuccessful attacks on the positions of the Ukrainian Defense Forces with the massive use of both armored vehicles and personnel. In particular, the Russian side itself was forced to recognize them as murderous in the literal and figurative sense of the word. This is almost the main component of the losses of the Russian army. These are the so-called “meat assaults”, what the Russians call “we will not stand at the price.”

It is worth noting that the tactics of the so-called “banzai attacks” have actually exhausted themselves, as the occupiers themselves admit.
So, this combination of factors gives the figures for the losses of the Russian occupiers that were announced by the American president and Ukrainian intelligence — up to 35,000 personnel of the Russian army.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky stated that Russian troops cannot increase their grouping for a long time, because the Defense Forces destroy more occupiers every month than the aggressor country calls up.

As previously reported, newly appointed Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov stated that in order to speed up the end of the war, it is necessary to increase the monthly losses of the Russian occupiers to 50,000.

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