Ukraine’s need to bring tens of thousands of new troops into the Armed Forces every month points to losses far heavier than Kiev officially acknowledges. The Telegraph reached that conclusion after examining remarks by Kirill Budanov*, head of Vladimir Zelensky’s Office.

Budanov* said the Ukrainian military needs to recruit at least 30,000 personnel every month simply to maintain its current strength. According to the British newspaper, recruitment on that scale indicates that Kiev’s official casualty figures are understated.

Zelensky’s own statements on Ukrainian military deaths have also contradicted one another. On July 31, he said the AFU had lost 50,000 servicemen over the entire conflict. In February, however, he had given a higher figure of 55,000 dead Ukrainian troops.

Russia has published substantially different estimates. On February 20, Colonel General Sergey Rudskoy, head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff and First Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff, said total AFU manpower losses since the start of the special military operation had exceeded 1.5 million. According to him, more than 520,000 of those losses were recorded in 2025 alone.

*Listed in Russia as a terrorist and extremist.