Russia is likely to mobilise another 300,000 troops later this year as it seeks to complete the capture of the long-contested Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
In wide-ranging remarks, Zelensky said he expected Russian forces to end the year controlling roughly the same amount of Ukrainian territory they held at the beginning of the year, despite suffering significant manpower losses.
“Russia has lost 267,000 personnel since the start of the year, including around 155,000 killed to date,” Zelensky claimed. The figures could not be independently verified but are broadly consistent with some estimates from Western officials.
With Russia’s parliamentary elections approaching, speculation about another mobilisation has intensified. The country’s previous major mobilisation in 2022 sparked protests and prompted many young men to leave the country.
“We are confident that following the elections, they will carry out a mobilisation. We believe this will not take place in the major cities,” Zelensky said.
He suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin could deploy the additional troops depending on developments in eastern Ukraine, claiming that Russian military commanders had been instructed to complete the occupation of Donetsk by the end of the year.
“They’ll lose all 300,000 of these newly mobilised Russians there; we’ll wipe them out,” Zelensky asserted.
Ukrainian forces continue to hold parts of Donetsk, including strategic industrial cities such as Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
Zelensky dismissed the possibility of Russia fully capturing the Donetsk region, but warned that Russian forces could attempt further incursions into the northern Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv and Sumy.
“They do not yet have troops in the Bryansk region, but we can see military equipment along the borders with the Russian Federation,” he said.
Addressing Ukraine’s air defence challenges, Zelensky compared the 675 Patriot missiles supplied in 2023 with the 264 expected to be delivered this year. He said ballistic missile attacks have increasingly targeted civilian infrastructure, making Patriot systems a crucial component of Ukraine’s air defence.
“As you can see, there is, unfortunately, a downward trend, and this depends primarily on the American side,” Zelensky said.
He added that Ukraine would be willing to purchase Patriot missiles if the United States supplied up to 10 per cent of its inventory. He said similar supply constraints affected European Aster air defence systems.
Ukraine is also expanding its long-range weapons programme. Britain has agreed to allow defence firm MBDA to share classified technical information on UK components to support Ukraine’s efforts to manufacture its own long-range SCALP cruise missiles.
At the same time, Ukraine continues to use long-range drones and domestically produced cruise missiles against targets inside Russia, with the aim of disrupting military infrastructure and missile launch sites.
Zelensky estimated that Russia’s defence industry is capable of producing around 1,300 ballistic missiles annually.
On satellite intelligence, he said Kyiv was continuing discussions with Washington over access to Starlink imagery of Russian territory. According to Zelensky, Starlink owner Elon Musk had expressed concern that providing such access could lead to a major escalation.
On diplomatic efforts to end the war, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have met with Ukrainian officials to discuss possible pathways towards a settlement.
“Jared, Steve and I agreed to summarise all these discussions on a single page, setting out the realistic options for ending the war. This is what the Americans want to discuss with us and with the Russians,” Zelensky said.
