Ukrainian intelligence reported that the Russians have built up a group that is fighting against Ukraine

At the end of June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the number of the enemy group fighting against Ukraine was 695,000 Russian military personnel. However, according to the Foreign Intelligence Service, this number currently exceeds 700,000, which is 60,000 more than in May and 120,000 more than in November last year. This was reported by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine in response to an enquiry from LIGA.net.

In addition, the Rosgvardeys are actively involved in hostilities. Their number in the occupied territories, as well as in the border areas of Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions is about 35 thousand people.

Russia is also increasing the production of "shahedin" to terrorise the civilian population of Ukraine. They are now producing more than 5,000 of these UAVs and decoys there every month. Some of them can fly 2,500 kilometres to their target

According to the Ukrainian President's Office, Vladimir Putin has set ambitious goals for the coming years. Thus, in 2025, Russia plans to seize Donetsk and Luhansk regions and create a "buffer zone" along its northern border. In 2026, Moscow intends to occupy the entire territory of Ukraine east of the Dnieper River and cut the country off from the Black Sea.

However, according to a number of military analysts, Russia will find it difficult to maintain such a high pace of offensives until 2026. Nevertheless, Western intelligence agencies see no signs that the Kremlin is ready to abandon its ambitions to permanently bind Ukraine to itself and strike a deal with the West that would transform security in post-Cold War Europe. At the current pace, though, they emphasise, it would take enemy forces almost a hundred years to take over Ukraine completely.