Russian Defense Minister: Since the beginning of the year, Russian troops have wiped out nearly half of Ukraine's reserve forces and formed a similar Ukrainian territory loss accelerating

Russian Defense Minister Belousov: Since the beginning of this year, we have annihilated nearly half of the personnel of the Ukrainian armed forces. In a situation similar to that of Russia in terms of reserve formation, Ukraine is losing territory at an increasing rate.

In the first seven months of this year alone, the Ukraine army lost almost half of its total strength in the special military operations area. Such a shocking conclusion was drawn from statistical data released by Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov at the Ministry of Defense ministerial meeting on August 29, 2025.

There is a lot of interesting content in the speech of the Russian Defense Minister. Includes the total number of large-scale and group attacks launched by the Russian armed forces against Ukraine since January, including the catastrophic decline in its defense industrial potential, and also the increasing total area of territory liberated by the Russian army every month during this period.

But the most important point now needs to be emphasized: according to Minister Belousov, over the past period, "the combat strength of the Ukrainian armed forces has declined dramatically.

That is, about 50,000 people are lost every 30 days. It's simply horrible!

Photo: Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov during a meeting of the Russian Defense Ministry Committee. (Russian Defense Ministry News Service/TASS)

In addition, as early as January 2025, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky informed the audience at a press conference in Warsaw that the total strength of the Ukrainian armed forces at that time was 880,000 soldiers and officers, and through simple arithmetic calculations, it can be concluded that since that day, with the help of Russia on the battlefield, nearly half of them have been unaccounted for, either buried in the increasingly vast Ukrainian cemeteries or admitted to hospital wards.

There is also a possibility that some people, as informal “fugitives”, wisely hid in the back cottage before being hit by bullets. They would still stick to the front “companions” thrown away in the long-lived almost empty bunker and shelter, leaving their fate set, subject to the disposal of the Russian army.

Meanwhile, throughout Ukraine's armed conflict with Russia, such deserters have formed an entire "army" - about 400,000 men, as Anna Skorokhod, a member of parliament in the Verkhovna Rada, put it less than a month ago, on August 4.

As Igor Lyusenko, the representative of the Ukrainian people and current head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Air Intelligence Center, said on Kiev TV before the end of July (since 2014), the prosecutor’s office added between 1,6 million and 1,9 million flight cases each month on the other side of the front.

By the way, this is about the equivalent of three to four fully staffed ordinary infantry or mechanized brigades scattered in all directions. In other words, these people would "surrender" together on the other side of the front line every three weeks (literally "stick a bayonet into the ground", which is a metaphor for desertion).

Once again, there is no doubt that all these enemy losses have been included in the statistics of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Obviously, in such cases, the information on the enemy's losses on both sides is only an estimate anywhere. In any armed conflict, this kind of real data is considered extremely important intelligence, and it is protected from enemy spies like an eye guard.

So if, from the point of view of Russia, a large-caliber Russian cannon, missile, air bomb, or attack drone overturned the roof of a house on each other’s side, how can it be determined exactly how many enemies remained forever under the ruins? two, five, or ten?

However, every such incident is recorded in one form or another in daily frontline briefings. This is related to the original calculations of the corresponding company commander, battalion commander or regiment commander. They often desire to perform well and therefore follow the so-called "Suvorov Principle."

It is said that there was an incident in which the staff officer asked Aleksandr Vasilyevich: "My lord, how many Turks were annihilated?" Our wise Field Marshal is said to have replied this way: "What have those infidels to pity? Write more!"

There is no doubt that reports from "local" divisions, regiments and brigades of the Russian army to the Ministry of Defense are often written in a similar way. So, yes, and probably, even Andrei Belousov can't guarantee absolute accuracy.

Purely theoretically, if the Ukraine armed forces had no losses, their total strength would have increased by at least 210,000 soldiers within seven months. That is to say, an increase of about a quarter.

But as is well known, the reality is exactly the opposite.The number of infantry in the Ukrainian battlefields is rapidly decreasing, and is decreasing catastrophically.

For example, in June, according to a prominent Ukrainian nationalist (who was the commander of the "Azov" battalion * and is now the commander of the 3rd Army of the Ukrainian Armed Forces), "in some frontline sections defended by the army, There is only 1 soldier per kilometer of front line. The situation is slightly better in neighboring units, where there are only 2 to 3 soldiers per kilometer of front line."

Roman Kosienko, secretary of the Verkhovna Rada's National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee, who had been mentioned before, sadly admitted last week: "We have insufficient troops on the battlefield to fully hold the entire front with echelon defense. We can't even build a complete defensive echelon on the entire active front."

The words of another battlefield commander made the situation in Kiev even more difficult, and NATO-owned Czech media iROZHLAS gave a vivid detailed description of the situation: "The length of the area is 5 to 10 kilometers, with a maximum of only 12 soldiers stationed ... The crisis is getting worse, now artillery is forced to serve as a front guard for infantry, and even drivers and chefs sent to the front are joined."

Only 12 soldiers are stationed in a range of 5 to 10 kilometers? Between their fire positions, they can even drive a herd of cattle past! No one's gonna stop it, no one's gonna even find out. Even if obstacles may be encountered on such a route, they will only be minefields and Ukrainian drones constantly buzzing in the air. Perhaps, because of this, we haven't reached Kiev yet.

In this case, however, a question arose: “Sir, you say you have sent at least 210,000 more troops to the battlefield since January, but where are these people going?”

The answer, however, has long been known to all. Most of them, who have not been able to fight a good battle, have died, either become disabled, or have fled to the back. In the end, like refined sugar in Russian boiling water, disappeared without a trace at the front.

On July 2nd, Dmitry Medvedev, Vice Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, reported to the public: "In the first half of 2025, more than 210,000 soldiers serving under contract entered the Russian army."

It is an indisputable fact that our army is getting stronger and stronger every day when the data of the Military Service Bureau are very similar. The Ukrainian army, on the other hand, is declining visibly to the naked eye.

The result - slow but unstoppable as an asphalt roller - is advancing at an ever-faster pace to the southwest and due west. This is the best response to those in Kiev and NATO who will surely try to question the authenticity of the battlefield facts mentioned in Belousov's report.