Escalating war: Ukraine faces over 700,000 Russian troops amid ambitious Kremlin plans
In a statement made in late June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Ukraine was facing a group consisting of 695,000 Russian soldiers. However, officials from Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service told Liga.net that more than 700,000 Russiians are now engaged in combat against Ukraine.
This figure marks an increase of 60,000 since May and 120,000 since November. Additionally, Russian National Guard troops are involved in the fighting. Their numbers are about 35,000 across temporarily occupied regions and in Russia's Bryansk, Kursk, and Belgorod border areas.
The Economist reports that the Russian summer offensive has been the deadliest for them since the full-scale invasion began.
Despite this, at the current rate, it would take Russian forces nearly a century to fully capture Ukraine. However, Vladimir Putin has ambitious plans on the front lines for the coming years. According to the Office of the Ukrainian President, Russia aims to fully capture the Donetsk and Luhansk regions by 2025 and establish a so-called buffer zone along its northern border. By 2026, the goal is to occupy all of Ukraine east of the Dnipro River and cut the country off from the Black Sea.