During the war, the Russians lost an average of 146 soldiers for every square kilometer captured. If we convert this into 6,000 square kilometers of Donbas still controlled by Ukraine, we will get a number of 876,000. Russian soldiers who would die fighting for this area – or they would be spared if the area passed to the opposing side without a fight.
Putin demands that Ukraine voluntarily withdraw from the 6,000 square kilometers of territory in the Donetsk Oblast that it still controls. Kyiv would give the fortified cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk to the Russians without a fight. This, in turn, would open the way for Putin's soldiers to conquer the central part of Ukraine.
Lawyer Kołomijec sharply criticized the Kremlin's idea. In a post published on his Facebook profile, he wrote that Putin can have Donbas “if Russia allows us to lose 876,000 Russian soldiers. With each murdered Russian, the requirements for security guarantees that would have to be ensured will also decrease.” [Ukrainie] United States”.
The Ukrainian MP's calculations received wide coverage on Ukrainian social media. Dmytro Korczynski, leader of the far-right Brotherhood movement, speculated how Ukraine could benefit from trading in the organs of extradited Russians. Of course, he didn't write about it seriously. The danger, as Korczyński himself writes about this idea, is that “Putin would ultimately agree to this proposal.”
Lawyer Kolomiyets also proposed that Russia, in exchange for peace, return to Ukraine the nuclear weapons that Kiev had handed over to the Russians in 1994. Ukraine then agreed to this move in exchange for Russian security guarantees. From today's perspective, the Ukrainians' move turned out to be ineffective. Kolomiyets also proposed that Russian assets frozen in Europe be used as compensation for the families of fallen Ukrainian soldiers.
The prospects for implementing both ideas are currently slim. Russia wants to continue its war of attrition. According to the American think tank Institute of War Studies (ISW), in 2025 Moscow won only 0.77 percent. territory of Ukraine (0.3% according to previous calculations by “The Economist”). According to Ukrainian data, which does not distinguish between those killed and wounded, Putin sacrificed 391,000. 270 Russian soldiers.
President of Russia Vladimir PutinContributor/Getty Images/Getty Images
Putin is preparing a “hidden” mobilization
These losses do not seem to deter Putin. He recently signed a decree under which the Russian army will be able to conscript an indefinite number of reservists into service in 2026. Already in November, Putin eased the previous strict restrictions on the purposes for which reservists could be called up. This means that it makes it easier for its commanders to send drafted reservists directly to the front.
ISW experts assess this series of decisions as a clear “breach of the Russian social contract”, a kind of tacit agreement between the Kremlin and Russian society: let us rule without any obstacles, and we will let you live without any obstacles.
This step is necessary because Putin is afraid of the official mobilization of young men, which could lead to a wave of protests. The Kremlin is seeking new soldiers, also because it is running out of money for high bonuses for volunteers.
However, there are no signs of an early end to the war. On the contrary: the more absurd Moscow's demands become, the more obvious it becomes that the war will continue for many years.
