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Budanov – Ukraine Is Losing 30,000 Soldiers Per Month
There have been few reliable data of human losses in the war of Ukraine. The estimates vary widely. The official number, especially on the Ukrainian side, are formed by propaganda.
In February of this year the (acting) President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelinski said that 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed since February 2022:
The last time Zelensky gave an update on Ukraine’s casualties was in December 2024, when he put deaths at 43,000.
In his interview with French television, he said: “In Ukraine, officially the number of soldiers killed on the battlefield – either professionals or those conscripted – is 55,000.”
The official number of dead cited by Zelensky is considerably lower than Ukraine’s total losses. As he said himself, “a large number of people” are registered as missing.
As of six months ago, Ukraine’s interior ministry had recorded more than 70,000 people as officially missing – both soldiers and civilians – but the breakdown is never given.
The true figure may be higher – information about the number of dead is highly sensitive and affects morale.
Five month later Zelenski’s number had shrunk by 5,000:
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview with Fox News reported 50,000 killed and 400,000 wounded Ukrainian servicemen.
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“Let’s be honest, I don’t want to be too frank about this because the Russians will understand what is happening with our army. So, we have about 50,000 soldiers killed, and approximately 400,000 wounded, and there is a huge number of missing in action,” said the President of Ukraine.
At the end of July 2026, when Zelenski gave the latest number, the war had been waged for 53 months. The average monthly losses for Ukraine, according to his numbers, have thus been some 8,500 dead and wounded per month.
Yesterday the head of the Presidential Office General Kyrylo Budanov made a comment which suggests a different, much higher, number:
Ukraine must mobilize at least 30,000 people monthly to maintain its current position on the battlefield, Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Presidential Office said.
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“Unfortunately, we have to accept it [mobilization] as it is. We cannot do otherwise,” Budanov said, according to Ukrainska Pravda.
“We have to find the courage and honestly say: we cannot mobilize fewer than 30,000 people a month. This is the minimum number needed to maintain what we have,” he continued.
The Ukrainian army does not release soldiers from their duty unless they have been severely wounded and/or are otherwise incapable to continuing their service. But there is a significant amount of soldiers who simply walk away, don civilian clothing and go absent without leave. In total that number is estimated to be some 200,000. Over the time of the war that amounts to some 4,000 per month.
As 30,000 new recruits are needed per month to maintain what Ukraine has, according to Budanov, there are on average some 26,000 losses per month of dead, missed or severely wounded. (Lightly wounded soldiers will return to service.)
Multiplied by 53 months this sums up to more than 1.3 million Ukrainian casualties.
Give that the Russian side has had -throughout the war- artillery, drone and bombing supremacy, it is highly likely that Ukrainian losses are significant higher that those on the Russian side.
Claims by the Ukrainian General Staff that Russia has had more than 1.48 million casualties seem therefore not to be realistic. (It is not even clear if that count is only of dead or includes wounded).
Unrealistic are also numbers spread these days by “western officials”:
While Russia is still acquiring new battlefield recruits at speed, with an estimated rate of 1,000 a day, in the last two months even this has not been sufficient to replace those killed or injured.
“We estimate that the gap between the number of people Russia is losing to casualties and the number they’re being able to recruit is around 6,000 a month at the moment,” one western official said.
An estimate of 36,000 Russian casualties per month is obviously bonkers.
At the end of 2025 the anti-Russian Meduza and Mediazona outlets claimed to have documented the death of 218,000 Russian soldiers and estimated a total, not documented, loss for Russia of 350,000. That would, on average, be 6,600 per month.
Even after the war in Ukraine has ended it will historians take years to come up with the real numbers of losses on either side.
Budanov’s claim, that 30,000 new soldiers per month are needed for Ukraine “to maintain what we have”, is probably in the ballpark of what historians will find.
Here’s a very different other side of the coin as Russia readies for another Knowledge Day–the start of the school year on 1 September–which was once a holiday also shared by Ukraine. Prior to and during this weekend [Event roster in English] Putin is out talking and visiting various places and events one of which was his visit to Moscow Pedagogical State University where Putin met with teachers, students majoring in pedagogical fields, and students in pedagogical classes and said the following as part of his opening remarks:
I mean, literally, that the prestige of the teaching profession is on the rise here now. And this is also evidenced by the number of applicants per position. How many do you have? Six or seven per position, right? Nine. Overall, this is indeed the case across the country — the number is increasing. However, in some universities, there are even more applicants per spot, and the Unified State Exam score required for admission to teaching programs has also increased. It used to be around 54 or 64, and now it’s 70 points. This indicates that attention to teaching professions is growing, and their prestige is increasing.
You know that in July of this year, I signed a decree on the status of teachers. I can’t say that anything particularly revolutionary is being proposed here. But still, we wanted—and when I say “we,” I don’t mean “we, Nicholas II”; when I say “we,” I mean everyone who works with me: the Administration, the Ministry, the Government—we wanted to ensure that attention was paid to teachers, who perform a crucial function in society, and not just attention, but also support for teachers in all areas, to be increased. We wanted to return to the practices that were generally positive even during the Soviet era—for example, the status of a veteran of labour. Young people – and here, mostly young people – don’t think about this, of course. And that’s right: you just need to live and work, achieve your goals today, keeping future prospects in mind, of course, but still, this is important for the entire teaching staff.
These are some of the other innovations that are proposed there. I’m referring to constant access to various sources of information, continuous retraining, additional training for teachers, and some other innovations.
By the way, I’m actually suggesting we talk about this now. Actually, perhaps this is the main purpose of our meeting — to discuss how you assess this decree, what else needs to be added, and how, in your opinion, this regulatory act should work in practice.
I would also like to say that when we constantly emphasize—and I just mentioned the importance of the teaching profession—that no modern tools, which, of course, should be introduced, are being introduced, and will continue to be introduced, can ever replace the living word of a teacher, instructor, or mentor. Why? Well, you probably know this better than I do, because, well, you know: as soon as printing appeared, the book appeared, and even then you could say: a teacher isn’t needed. Well, what’s the point? Just take a book and read — you just need to teach a person to read, and that’s it. No. Then other sources of information started to appear, then television, and all sorts of things appeared. Now there’s the internet, artificial intelligence, and so on. But teaching a person — especially a young person, a child — to think independently is a separate mission for a teacher: to teach them to think independently. [My Emphasis]
As an educator, I agree 100% and am very pleased to see what Russia’s doing to advance its entire educational universe. However, I picked this out specifically to make the point that Ukraine isn’t doing anything of the sort, nor are the Outlaw states. And this isn’t just electioneering by Putin since he’s held these sorts of gatherings annually to coincide with Knowledge Day. Yesterday, Putin addressed the Agency for Strategic Initiatives plenary session forum Strong Ideas for the New Time and opened by saying the following:
Before our meeting, my colleagues presented several of the ideas put forward at the forum. They address some of the areas of greatest importance for our country, including space exploration and development, improving the quality of services at paramedic and obstetric stations, primary healthcare, measures to support families with children, and creating new opportunities for young people to fulfil their potential.
I would like to underscore that comprehensive instructions will be issued to the Government, ministries and agencies regarding these and other significant projects. Such proposals are intended to become an integral part of the overall national development agenda. It is in this manner, consistent with our established tradition, that we organise the work of our forum. [My Emphasis]
The only opportunity for young Ukrainians is to die for NATO/EU, a future to be revolted against. Cattle for the slaughter.
Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 29 2026 19:14 utc | 13
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