Ukraine’s drone forces, for the first time in the war, killed or seriously wounded more Russian soldiers in a month than the Kremlin was able to recruit, army commander General Oleksandr Syrsky said on Tuesday.
“Last December was the first month when the Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) neutralized approximately as many servicemen of the occupation army as Russia called up for a month. The enemy lost more than 33,000 personnel. This number includes only confirmed video cases. The real losses of the occupiers are greater,” Syrsky said.According to official AFU statements, during December 2025, Russian forces suffered a confirmed 35,050 casualties from all causes. The Icelandic researcher Ragnar Gmundsson, in figures published on Tuesday that generally matched Syrsky’s figures, estimated total Russian personnel losses for 2025 at 416,550 men, of whom about 110,000 died.
Kremlin officials throughout the Russo-Ukraine War have suggested Ukrainian and international estimates are exaggerated. However, a Dec. 19 analysis published by the independent Mediazona group, using verifiable data like death notices, obituaries and funeral invitations, said confirmable reports of killed Russian service personnel in 2025 had increased 40% over 2024, and stood at 156,000 lost in action or hospital.
Ukrainian Maj. Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), in a December operations report published on Monday, echoed Syrsky’s report of record Russian casualties and said that the precise figure was 33,019 Russian service personnel struck by first person view (FPV) kamikaze drones or munitions dropped by bomber drones during December, compared with 26,170 Russian personnel losses recorded and confirmed in November.
During December, drone operations had been some of the most intense of the war, with more than 339,000 individual flight missions completed by USF flying drones, and 2,100 missions carried out by ground drones, he said.
Brovdi said the USF forces’ successful strike rate had nearly doubled (increased by 42%) since November and that he expected further increases in January. A former businessman originally volunteering as a private soldier in 2022 and now overall commander of Ukraine’s drone forces, Brovdi, in public statements, has said he believes Ukraine can defeat Russia if its drone forces kill or wound Russian soldiers faster than the Kremlin can recruit them.
“This is what is important! The drones of the Defense Forces of Ukraine for the first time on their own (excluding the destruction of enemy manpower in contact battles) achieved balance in credit/debit: it is exactly 33-35,000 infantry that make up the monthly mob (sent to Ukraine) by the occupying country (Russia),” Brovdi said in a statement to troops. He called on USF units to make January “even more hellish” for Russian forces.
Syrsky’s and Brovdi’s statements on Russian recruiting and replacement figures matched independent and open-source estimates of total numbers of men entering the Russian Army’s ranks every month, but were lower than some Kremlin claims.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in May 2025 comments reported by TASS, said “up to 60,000 people” volunteer to join Russia’s armed forces monthly. However, his subordinate former President Dmitry Medvedev, in July 2025, said contract servicemen were entering the Russian military at a pace of around 30,000 men a month, a figure echoed by Defense Minister Belousov, who in December said Russia had in 2025 signed contracts with 417,000 new soldiers, implying a recruitment rate of 34,000-35,000 new soldiers every month.
Syrsky said that Ukraine’s drone forces are more powerful than Russia’s but that the Kremlin is moving to increase unmanned aircraft production and recruitment and training of operators. Staying ahead of Russia in fielding drone units, armed with sufficient aircraft and munitions, is a top AFU priority, he said.
“We are clearly aware of what we will have to face in the near future and what exactly needs to be done to neutralize the enemy on the battlefield of unmanned systems. In modern warfare, this is a primary goal,” he said. “Whoever has an advantage in the quantity and quality of UAVs keeps more of their soldiers and destroys the enemy more effectively. And we continue to maintain an advantage in the number of FPV drone applications.”
Following a US embargo on deliveries to Ukraine of conventional weapons like artillery and tanks in late 2023, the AFU turned to drones flown by small, mobile operator teams as its main means of fighting its much more heavily armed opponent, the Russian army. Since then, Ukraine’s drone forces have grown to become the world’s biggest and arguably most lethal organization operating military robot aircraft and ground vehicles.
Most Ukrainian army estimates say between one-quarter and one-half of Russian personnel casualties and equipment losses are directly caused by drone strikes, with a significant additional percentage of losses inflicted with the assistance of reconnaissance drones used to call in artillery, air or missile strikes on Russian forces. In some recent actions, the figure has risen about 90%.
On both sides, practically all casualty estimates are based on drone video. Within the USF standard, evidence considered sufficient for confirming a hit is video from an FPV drone homing in on a specific individual or vehicle, followed by images recorded by a reconnaissance drone showing the extent of damage. However, neither Russian nor Ukrainian forces publish all battle videos recorded, making it impossible to confirm casualty and kill claims independently.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, per Wednesday figures, reported 1,214,500 total Russian personnel losses since late February 2022, including 1,040 from the previous day. Most Russian losses take place during assault or consolidation operations by small groups of Russian infantrymen that are observed by Ukrainian drones and then attacked by drones, or mortar or artillery strikes.
Quantities of massed armored vehicle attacks with tanks and personnel carriers, once the Russian army’s go-to tactic in Ukraine, have stalled or even shrunk in 2025, while personnel losses – driven by repeated attacks by Russian foot soldiers – have rocketed. Heavy drone presence over the battlefield, making the movement of armored vehicles almost impossible, is the main reason for the limited use of heavy weapons by Russia on the battlefield, most military analysts say.
In mid-December in a rare recent attempt to gain ground with armored forces a 24-vehicle element of Russia’s 40th and 155th Naval Infantry Brigades attempted to break through Ukrainian positions near the eastern village of Dobropillia. The two-column frontal assault, including tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles, was repulsed after driving into minefields seeded by Ukrainian drones and then coming under attack by mortars, artillery, rocket artillery, FPV drones, and bomber drones.
Later USF statements said at least two-thirds of the Russian force was destroyed and the rest put to flight. Russian milbloggers acknowledged the defeat but did not give details on losses. Russia’s Defense Ministry did not comment on the engagement.