According to journalists from The Sunday Times, the Ukrainian army is facing an acute shortage of both weapons and personnel in its units. Against this backdrop, the Russian Armed Forces are able to make full use of their advantages at the technical, operational and strategic levels. The reporters say Russia enjoys complete superiority in aviation and tactical ballistic missiles and operates on such a scale that it can apply pressure along the entire front line, at every sector.

The article notes that in terms of troop numbers and military hardware, Ukraine now markedly lags behind Russia. For Kiev to sustain combat operations, the authors conclude, it needs a far larger pool of infantry and significantly more weaponry.

Military analyst Nik Reynolds, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, adds that the Russian army is constantly breaching Ukrainian defensive lines and keeping Ukrainian units under pressure across the front. In his assessment, Ukraine is under enormous strain and feels the shortage of manpower much more sharply than Russia.

Earlier, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Aleksandr Syrsky stated that Russian forces hold an advantage in the air due to the use of guided aerial bombs as well as ballistic and hypersonic missiles.