Oleksandr Syrskyi: Russian army losses in 2025 exceeded its replenishment level
In an interview with Le Monde in Kyiv in February, Oleksandr Syrskyi described the current period as "extremely difficult" for the state and the people, but at the same time characterised it as a "period of incredible struggle" for the Ukrainian armed forces. According to him, Ukraine is facing "the largest and most powerful army in Europe" in a war whose scale is beyond imagination.
Assessing 2025, Syrskyi noted that the situation could have been much worse. He stated that Russia was preparing a large-scale offensive operation with the aim of capturing the entire Donbas, territories in the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions, as well as creating a buffer zone in the Kharkiv and Sumy regions, but these plans were not realised.
He cited two key circumstances among the reasons. The first concerns operations on Russian territory in March and April in the Belgorod region, as well as in May and June in the Kursk region. According to him, this forced Russian troops to redeploy their forces and prevented them from launching their planned spring offensive.
Syrskyi cited events on the south-eastern front as the second reason. In August 2025, Russian troops launched an offensive in the direction of Dobropillya with the aim of encircling the Pokrovsk-Myrnograd agglomeration and then advancing to the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive in this direction. According to Syrskyi, the advanced units of the Russian Federation's 51st Army found themselves almost surrounded, after which Russia was forced to deploy marines, who became involved in the fighting.
Regarding Moscow's claims about the capture of Kupiansk and Pokrovsk, Syrskyi asserts that 97 per cent of Kupiansk is under the control of Ukrainian forces. The situation in Pokrovsk is more complicated, but the city has not been captured, and Ukrainian units are holding the northern part and have stabilised the situation in the west.
The commander-in-chief noted that the war has not reached a deadlock and is being waged on land, in the air and at sea. According to him, every day both sides use 6,000 to 8,000 FPV drones, as well as hundreds of reconnaissance drones. At the same time, he acknowledged Russia's superiority in the air, particularly in the use of guided bombs and periodic strikes with ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
Syrskyi also stated that Ukrainian forces forced the Russian Black Sea Fleet to leave Sevastopol and move to Novorossiysk. According to him, this made it possible to ensure the functioning of the grain corridor, through which more than 6,000 flights were made and more than 64 million tonnes of cargo were transported in 2025.
In addition, he reported 719 targets hit on Russian territory in 2025, including airfields, bases, military factories, and oil and gas sector enterprises. According to his estimates, the enemy's losses exceeded $15 billion.
Syrskyi separately focused on the personnel situation in the Russian army. He stated that in 2025, Russia mobilised 406,000 people, while the total losses in killed and wounded amounted to about 418,000 military personnel. At the same time, the number of Russian offensive forces was increased to 713,000 soldiers. According to Syrskyi, Ukrainian forces are putting between 1,000 and 1,100 Russian soldiers out of action every day.
He did not report on the losses of the Ukrainian army.
Syrskyi noted that until the negotiations are completed, his task remains to prevent the enemy from advancing deeper into the defences and to liberate territories where possible.
