Battlefield premiere: Ukrainian drones are destroying Russian troops faster than Putin can replace them
In December 2025, for the first time in the war, Russia's battlefield losses were almost equal to the number of newly recruited troops by Moscow during the same period, if not even higher, the head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Sirski, recently revealed.
Sîrski and Zelenski on the Pokrovsk front PHOTO profimedia
These results are due to the intensive use of unmanned systems by the Ukrainian forces. Especially in the last year, drone operations have formed the core of the activity of Ukrainian troops on the front.
More than 33,000 Russian soldiers were neutralized in December, the head of the Ukrainian army said, explaining that this figure only includes cases confirmed by video recordings; the real losses suffered by Russia are probably higher than that, he said.
Russia has not provided official figures on losses. As for the number of new soldiers sent to Ukraine monthly, US estimates put the figure at around 30,000 last April. In May, however, the Russian president said the number of new recruits would double. An assessment by Ukrainian intelligence in December showed that Russia had met its 2025 mobilization goal of 403,000 people, a monthly average of more than 36,000.
A substantial advance in drone combat capabilities
In December, units operating unmanned aerial systems flew about 339,000 missions, while ground robotic systems completed nearly 2,100 tasks. In total, the number of targets hit or destroyed by drones increased by 31 percent, and the number of Russian personnel hit increased by more than 25 percent, he said.
According to Sîrski, Ukraine significantly expanded its drone capabilities in 2025 and has plans to increase this force in 2026 as well, including through the formation of specialized units.
The Unmanned Systems Forces, which Ukraine established in June 2025 as the world's first branch dedicated to military drones, represents only 2.2 percent of Ukraine's total military personnel, but has become one of the most effective forces on the battlefield.
On the other hand, Russia is building its own unmanned systems forces, which could reach impressive proportions. According to Sîrski, citing Ukrainian military intelligence, Moscow has created separate drone troops numbering about 80,000 members and plans to expand them to 165,500 in 2026 and nearly 210,000 by 2030.
Currently, Russia has exceeded its annual order for the production of long-range drones and is currently producing more than 400 such drones per day.
