Nearly 700,000 Russian military personnel deployed in Ukraine, intelligence says

There are close to 700,000 Russian service members deployed in Ukraine, including National Guard soldiers, special forces, and support units, Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR) spokesperson Andrii Yusov said on Sept. 5.

“The majority is deployed in Donetsk Oblast, which shows… (Russia’s) priorities,” Yusov said in an interview with Ukrainian news channel Novyny.Live.

Ukraine’s army fields almost 900,000 service members across the country, but President Volodymyr Zelensky said in January that Russia continues to hold a numerical advantage in some front-line sectors due to the concentration of forces.

At the time, the Russian contingent in Ukraine counted 600,000 troops, Zelensky said.

Despite reportedly suffering over 1 million soldiers killed and wounded during the full-scale war, Russia has been consistently able to offset its losses by fresh contract soldiers, while Kyiv faces increasingly critical manpower shortages.

Moscow has also received North Korean reinforcements, with thousands of troops expected to arrive after the initial batch of 11,000-12,000 soldiers who were deployed in Russia’s Kursk Oblast in late 2024.

The North Korean contingent helped Russia fend off a Ukrainian incursion into the Russian border region, reportedly suffering 2,000 soldiers killed in combat.

When asked if North Korean troops have joined hostilities on Ukrainian territory, Yusov responded that Pyongyang’s forces currently remain in Russia.

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing earlier this week, has been a key ally to Moscow during the full-scale war, providing not only soldiers but also artillery shells and ballistic missiles.

“Along the entire front, 40-60% of artillery shells fired at Ukraine and Ukrainian soldiers are North Korean-made — these are huge numbers,” Yusov said.

“If this factor were taken away, Russia’s fire support and strike capabilities would be much smaller,” the spokesperson said, noting that North Korean artillery and missile supplies play a much more significant role than the troop deployment.