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News & Current Events Apr 21, 2026 at 8:49 AM

Ukraine’s Envoy Says Russia Would Need Millions More Troops to Occupy Territory

Posted by Playful-Beautys

Ukraine’s Envoy Says Russia Would Need Millions More Troops to Occupy Territory
Kyiv Post
Ukraine’s Envoy Says Russia Would Need Millions More Troops to Occupy Territory
Kyiv’s UN representative rejected Russian demands and argued that Moscow’s war losses far outweigh its territorial gains.
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Infinite-Fig-194 Apr 21, 2026 +69
Russia has 145 million population so it's a sacrifice Putin would be willing to make.
69
Few-Hair-5382 Apr 21, 2026 +49
They are not sending women, children or elderly people (yet), so that does reduce their pool of future cadavers somewhat. And then you've got the young men working in essential sectors like armaments and agriculture, and they can't afford to send them. And, of course, they can't send too many sons of oligarchs, or residents of Moscow and St Petersburg, as they might get upset and that frightens Putin. So they only have a limited pool of deadbeat, poorly fed, depressive alcoholic males to send.
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sansaset Apr 21, 2026 +9
What’s the limited pool by your calculations then? From that 145 million is it 5? 20?
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Bandage-Bob Apr 21, 2026 +8
Just using some quick Google searches the number of women, seniors, and those under 18 account for roughly 131 million out of 146 million. That leaves 15 million men in the age range of 18-64.
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derplamer Apr 21, 2026 +7
That’s a wild figure. If average life expectancy is ~80yrs and men comprise ~50% of the population then one would expect a ballpark figure (assuming a population column rather than a pyramid) of around 30% of population or 43m. To have less than half, and closer to a third speaks either to errors (probably only part) or a horribly distorted spread of population.
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cctchristensen Apr 21, 2026 +7
From the 2009 CIA world factbook (RIP that great resource), Russia had approx. 21 million males fit for military service, and another 28 million females if they were willing to send them in too. I don't think those figures would be dramatically different today.
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derplamer Apr 22, 2026 +2
For the record: I was expressing surprise rather than disagreement. Russia’s population pyramid is definitely not a pyramid, being skewed heavily female and wearing the scars of history in its peaks and troughs.
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springmeds Apr 22, 2026 +1
Male life expectancy in Russia is 65.
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derplamer Apr 24, 2026 +1
Brutal
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byjegeren Apr 23, 2026 +1
More 13.2 now with with the deaths, casualties and escapes
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shiggythor Apr 21, 2026 +3
For comparison: Prussia under Frederick the great ("an army with a state") had ~8% of its population in the army. That was with a much more generous demographic and not much of an economy that needed workforce.
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Creative-Mode-6097 Apr 21, 2026 +1
He have soon only womens left to send . It,s meny singel women in russia today. So when the war it,s over will Russia be a paradis for men like Thailand . Wooooooov
1
Ultra_Metal Apr 21, 2026 +21
[At The Current Rate, It Would Take Russia Centuries And Tens Of Millions Of Casualties To Capture Ukraine](https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/05/01/at-the-current-rate-it-would-take-russia-centuries-and-tens-of-millions-of-casualties-to-capture-ukraine/) Russia got into a war it can't win.
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Doctor_Fritz Apr 21, 2026 +8
Not taking into effect how much better Ukraines drones and robots will become over time. It's honestly insane what they created in the past year alone
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Remote-Cause755 Apr 21, 2026 +18
While the number would be very high, I am not sure this envoy has an unbias metric on the subject
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Jumping-Gazelle Apr 21, 2026 +28
Who knows the exact numbers. Russia desperately need to find reasons to escalate into mobilization to continue their imperialistic-like goals, while Ukraine simply wants a zero amount and actually be left alone. I agree with this statement without a metric: *"Melnyk also criticized Moscow’s war strategy, saying Russia is “burning its own population” for limited territorial gains."*
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Piper6728 Apr 21, 2026 +2
Ill only believe it when I see it An insider trading rapist who made ICE into a program that kills Americans apparently isnt enough
2
PaleInTexas Apr 21, 2026 +1
Russia would need millions more to conquer it first. Doubtful that'll happen though as Ukraine is actually taking back territory.
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hungry_sabretooth Apr 22, 2026 +1
We're still in the hot phase of the war. Imagine a scenario where the conflict gets frozen, but there is a local insurgency in any occupied zones supported by what remains of the Ukranian state. The Russians would have to deal with somehow controlling an extremely heavily-armed people who look like them, speak their language fluently, and hate their guts. It is an impossible task unless they had a permanent massive deployment or literally committed an enormous genocide (and to achieve the latter, they would still need an overwhelming occupation force which was ok with committing it).
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LThadeu Apr 21, 2026 +1
Isn't Russia benefiting from sending the poor to die?
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mal73 Apr 21, 2026 +8
No, obviously not if you think about it for a second. Soldiers and conscripts are made up by the exact kind of demographic that is crucial for industrious nations to succeed. Which is why total war is almost always followed by a Great Depression.
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Opulon_Nelva Apr 21, 2026 +4
Yep. Countries that historically afforded ludicrously high mass of casualties (millions) often were countries with a very large youth population, a big part of the economy into the first sector (agriculture), and a high fertility rate. Nigeria, with 70% of the population working in subsistence agriculture, 55% of people under 29 years old, and a fertility rate of 4.94. This is the kind of country that, if a madman was ruling it and said "tens of millions can die for the motherland", i will believe him, as grim as it is. France and Germany in 1914 could. The USSR in 1940 could. France, Germany, Russia... even China, when we observe their growth... They simply can not sustainably afford a bloodshed that removes from their complex economy up to 10% of the productive people. Both for Ukraine and Russia, it's hard to understate the long term demographic stress, and its economic consequences, that the "already happened" casualties created.
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soulstormfire Apr 21, 2026 -23
Hey look, that's the former ambassador to Germany. Dude was so detached from reality he was removed. I would not believe a single word from him.
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Ok-Marzipan495 Apr 21, 2026 -52
Can you stop posting posting these things? It's like posting cold war related things from NYT or the USSR Pravda during the cold war, pure propaganda with a pinch of truths from each side of the conflict. If you want to post war related subjects do it with indpeendet journalism like AP news, Reuters or AFP news. Edit: Keep downvoting pls, your opinions mean nothing to me.
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Actomaniac Apr 21, 2026 +4
Your opinions mean so little to me I edited my post to cry about them!
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