On average, russian recruits are killed 20–30 minutes after arriving at the front in Ukraine. This was stated by John Ratcliffe, Director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the “DW Glavnoye” Telegram channel reported on July 17.
According to Ratcliffe, russian soldiers have a harder time surviving because "AI-powered drones have become specialized and inexpensive killing machines".
The CIA director noted that Ukraine's adoption of new technologies has become "a powerful equalizing factor" and has slowed the pace of the russian army's advance. According to some estimates, more than 90% of russia's losses are now caused by UAV strikes rather than direct combat.
According to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), in 2026 the russian army began losing service members at a rate eight times higher than the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Overall, since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, around 2 million service members have been killed, wounded, or reported missing, of whom 1.4 million are from the russian side, the organization noted.