About 200,000 Russian soldiers are now present in Ukraine, including paramilitaries and separatists, according to military analysts in The New York Times. Putin wants to send an extra 300 thousand Russians with the partial mobilization, although it is not expected that they can all be deployed simultaneously.
British defense analysts doubt whether the deployment of 300,000 new soldiers is at all feasible. They think it will take at least several months before the new soldiers are ready to fight. With the partial mobilization, the number of active soldiers in Russia rises to 1.2 million.
Before the invasion, according to think tank IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies), the country had 900 thousand active soldiers and 2 million reservists. In theory, Russia claims to be able to mobilize 25 million citizens. The mobilization led to large-scale protests in Russia, in which, according to human rights organization OVD, at least 1,321 people were arrested in 40 cities.
At the beginning of this year, Ukraine had 196,600 active soldiers and 900 thousand reservists. Just before the Russian invasion it was decided to mobilize. Shortly afterwards, men between the ages of 18 and 60 were no longer allowed to leave the country. The extent of the Ukrainian mobilization is not known, military analysts say that at least 400 thousand soldiers have been called up.
Russian minister Shoygu reported that 5,937 Russian soldiers have been killed so far. According to Ukraine, there are almost ten times as many: 55,510. The British Ministry of Defense estimated the number of Russians killed at 25 thousand in June.
Ukraine reports that up to the end of August, about 9 thousand Ukrainian soldiers have been killed. According to the Russians, this is a significant underestimate, they speak of 61,207 killed Ukrainian soldiers.
