One of the reasons why Russian President Vladimir Putin is ignoring his “friend” and American counterpart, Donald Trump, despite the latter’s threats to impose economic sanctions on Moscow over the war in Ukraine, is that he has the upper hand on the ground at the moment.
This is because on the one hand, Russian technocrats have managed to build an economy that can withstand Western sanctions, and on the other, Russia can find many soldiers to join its forces in the summer offensive – while Ukraine’s reserves are dwindling.
And as is reasonable, regardless of technology and weapons, a war is won when there are soldiers on the battlefield.
And it is an open secret that Ukraine suffers from an acute shortage of personnel. Men aged 18 to 60 are not allowed to leave the country since February 2022 without special permission, while Ukrainians are being forced into the armed forces.
On the other hand, recent reports and studies show that despite the thousands of soldier losses that Russia has suffered, it has managed to manage new recruitments relatively easily.
As of May 2025, the Russian Armed Forces numbered 3.57 million soldiers, of which 37%, or 1.32 million, were active military personnel. Two million were reservists and 250,000 were paramilitary forces.
Significantly, the number of servicemen in the Russian army has doubled since the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian army is now the fourth largest in the world, along with North Korea (with China, India, and the United States coming in first, second, and third, respectively).
Notably, Russian soldiers outnumber Ukrainians by 420,000, not counting reservists and paramilitary forces. And most of them are genuine Russians, not foreign mercenaries.
According to the most recent available data, Russian conscription continued at a spectacular pace in the first quarter of 2025, increasing by 22% compared to the first quarter of 2024 (from 73,366 to 89,601 men). It is worth noting that immediately after the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, the EurAsian Times had detailed how complex the battlefield in Ukraine had become, with a range of violent non-state actors—private military contractors, foreign fighters, volunteers, mercenaries, extremists, and terrorist groups—all involved.
Ukraine had then openly announced that approximately twenty thousand (20,000) people from fifty-two (52) countries had applied to fight in the International Territorial Defense Legion of Ukraine, including Americans, Canadians, and several European nationalities.
Russia had also reported that approximately sixteen thousand (16,000) men from the Middle East and Central Asia had applied to fight for Russia.
It is understandable that with many of these foreign fighters killed and some held as prisoners of war (POWs) by both sides (although some have been released through prisoner swaps), the number of those fighting for Ukraine has dwindled. This is especially true for Ukraine.
Putin’s Reaction to Trump’s Action
Four Russian Tu-95MS nuclear bombers have reportedly moved closer to Europe, raising the “high probability” of an upcoming major attack, according to a report by Insider UA.
The Russian president’s move remains to be confirmed, but if confirmed, it is believed to be an on-the-ground response to Donald Trump’s decision to send two nuclear submarines “closer to Russia,” following a confrontation with Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev.
It is recalled that Trump warned on August 3, in an extremely threatening tone, that “US submarines are exactly where they need to be.”
