The professional army of the Russian Federation was destroyed in the Russian-Ukrainian war by 2023, and now Russians are fighting with mobilized military.
This was reported in an interview with Ukrinform by Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate.
“How would I assess their current condition? Their professional army was wiped out sometime before 2023, and since then Russia’s been deploying mobilized personnel. Although formally they are all contracted soldiers, the approach is the same. They recruit someone, and in two weeks max they are already at the frontlines. They bet purely on numbers,” he said.
Budanov also admitted that the Russians are “moving forward” at the front, but not at the pace they expected.
“Just look at the war map we saw was on February 21, 2022, and the one we see today. To say that they haven’t achieved anything would not be true. They are advancing, but this is absolutely not the pace they were counting on. Indeed, we managed to hold them back in most areas, and in certain areas they permanently have gains. So they – quite correctly – understand that this war is a disaster for them, as it is for us, too, but they do have capabilities to move forward,” the DIU chief said.
Budanov added that the human potential and mobilization resources of the Russian Federation allow them to advance at the front.
Speaking about the future goal of the Russian Federation, the head of the DIU said that it remains unchanged [seizing as much Ukrainian land as possible], but the fact that “Kyiv in Three Days” turned into the third anniversary of the full-scale invasion shows that “something went wrong.”
In particular, the battles in Hostomel, Moshchun, and Irpin at the beginning of the full-scale invasion prevented Russia from implementing the plan of the special military operation “Kyiv in Three Days.”
As Ukrinform reported, the defense of Kyiv lasted from February 24 to April 2, 2022.
Russia attacked the capital with columns of armored vehicles from three directions. The resistance of the Armed Forces thwarted these intentions. The enemy troops gained a foothold on the Makariv-Horynychi-Bucha-Demydiv line.
The enemy’s attempts to seize the Hostomel airport near Kyiv were thwarted. An attempt to land airborne troops at the airport in Vasylkiv was also repelled. This made it impossible for the Kremlin to capture the capital at lightning speed, as planned.
On the evening of April 2, 2022, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced that the Ukrainian military had liberated Kyiv region from Russian invaders. The last enemy units were driven out of Bucha, Hostomel, and Borodianka.
Source: DIU Chief: Russia’s professional army was wiped out before 2023, now relies on mobilized troops
