Russia’s resources to continue war may run out in 2028 – Ivashchenko
Russia has sufficient military and economic resources to continue its war against Ukraine through 2027, but these could be exhausted in 2028. At the same time, the Russian army's losses already exceed the rate at which it replenishes its personnel.
Chief of Ukraine's Defence Intelligence Oleh Ivashchenko said this in an interview with the British newspaper The Times, according to Censor.NET.
"Russia has military and economic resources for next year, but we assess that they will run out in 2028," Ivashchenko said.
According to him, Russia recruits around 1,000–1,200 people into its armed forces every day, but combat losses exceed these figures. He cited losses of 1,410 and 1,551 service members over two days as examples. In one of those cases, around 60% of the losses were fatalities.
Western intelligence agencies, the article said, generally share the assessment that the balance is negative for Russia: each month, the Russian army loses around 6,000 more service members than it can recruit.
Ivashchenko also said that Russian service members have low morale and that public sentiment in Russia is deteriorating.
"Morale is very low because no one wants to fight. The morale of the Russian population is also low: most people do not really want the war," the Defence Intelligence chief said.
According to Ukrainian intelligence estimates, Russia has already recruited more than 28,000 foreign mercenaries for the war. In particular, an increasing number of people from African countries are being lured with promises of high pay.
Ivashchenko said that Ukrainian intelligence provides information on such recruitment to the relevant security and intelligence services of other states and also conducts information operations to warn the populations of countries whose citizens Russia is seeking to recruit.
