Syrskyi: Russia Concentrated Over 721,000 Troops in Ukraine

Since the end of 2025, Russia has increased the size of its offensive force in Ukraine by approximately 11,000 troops. As of the end of June 2026, the invaders had concentrated 721,300 military personnel.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, stated this in an interview with The Times.

According to the Commander-in-Chief, the Russian command has not abandoned its intentions to seize Ukrainian territories and continues pressuring on the Ukrainian Defense Forces, leveraging its significant advantage in manpower.

The enemy is attempting to wear down Ukrainian units along the entire front line by deploying small but constant assault groups.

“Just like last year, they are using the ‘thousand cuts’ tactics, trying to penetrate as deep as possible into our defenses,” he noted.

In early June, it was reported that in the Oleksandrivka sector alone, the Russian force numbered over 71,000 troops. Approximately the same number of invaders have been concentrated in the Huliaipole and Orikhiv sectors.

At the same time, despite the high absolute figures, this indicates that the size of the Russian force has remained roughly the same for about a year.

While in the first half of 2025 the Russian force in Ukraine grew by 7,000-9,000 personnel each month, during the last six months of 2025 its strength leveled off and remained stable at 710,000-711,000 troops.

The increase of approximately 10,000 personnel lags significantly behind previous rates due to consistently high losses among Russian forces, ranging from 30,000 to 35,000 personnel per month, and a collapse in the recruitment of contract soldiers in the spring of 2026, when it fell by one-third compared to the same period last year.

Faced with a shortage of volunteers, Russian authorities began actively enlisting individuals under investigation or in custody in exchange for the dismissal of criminal cases, and also launched a covert recruitment campaign under the guise of “civilian jobs” in the rear. Similar job postings offering large sums of money have even begun to appear in Belarus and China.

The Commander-in-Chief also reported that Russian troops plan to significantly increase their use of FPV drones on the front lines.

While the invaders currently deploy about 6,000-7,000 FPV drones on the battlefield daily, intelligence reports indicate they aim to increase this figure to 33,000 drones per day by the end of this year.