Kiev could soon launch a full mobilization, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. The Ukrainian draft officials were ordered to issue two million draft notices in early 2026, she told a briefing on Thursday.
According to Zakharova, security services and draft officials in Ukraine were told to “tighten the screws to a maximum,” by cutting the list of health conditions allowing deferment from military service.
The measures would still “hardly help resolve the systemic issue of replenishing the Ukrainian army losses,” Zakharova stated, adding that Ukrainians are increasingly reluctant to join the military and even prefer jail time instead.
Kiev has been facing chronic manpower shortages throughout its conflict with Moscow amid high battlefield losses, massive draft dodging, and desertion. The last publicly available Ukrainian data showed nearly 290,000 desertion cases have been recorded since the escalation of the conflict in 2022.
Since that time, Ukraine barred nearly all adult men from leaving the country and lowered the draft age from 27 to 25. Nearly 100,000 young men have reportedly fled the country since August when the Ukrainian government issued a decree allowing men aged 18 to 22 to cross the border.
According to Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, the Ukrainian military lost almost 500,000 servicemen this year alone. “Kiev has lost the ability to replenish its groupings through the compulsory mobilization of civilians,” the minister stated earlier this month.
Kiev’s recruitment drive has grown increasingly brutal as hundreds of incidents have been documented online in which enlistment officers assaulted potential conscripts, chased them through the streets, and threatened bystanders who tried to intervene.
In October, Kiev’s conscription authorities demanded citizens to stop circulating such videos on the internet.
The Russian Defense Ministry has released footage of what it said were Geran kamikaze drones destroying two Ukrainian military helicopters deep inside the country.
The strikes, reportedly carried out Saturday, may have involved unmanned aircraft which were guided via satellite link.
The video shows two separate hits on the same location, with an operator appearing to assist the drones’ targeting systems. The ministry identified the destroyed aircraft as a Mil Mi-24 and a Mil Mi-8 operated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The footage had previously circulated on Russian military Telegram channels.
Ukrainian electronic warfare specialist Sergey “the Flash” Beskrestnov, who was recently appointed an advisor to the new Ukrainian Defense Minister, Mikhail Fedorov, said no additional Russian drones were nearby to relay commands during the attack, suggesting it was the first Geran deployment to use a satellite internet link.
“Those [drones] were piloted manually at a low altitude to stay under the radar,” Beskrestnov said.
The Russian military did not comment on the Gerans’ targeting but said the strikes hit an area 46 kilometers west of the Kanatovo airfield in Kirovograd Region, deep inside Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Earlier this month, the Defense Ministry launched a major recruitment drive for the Russian Unmanned Forces – a new formation being rapidly expanded based on experience from the Ukraine conflict.
