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The Russian leader was forced to scale back a victory day parade due to a lack of available military hardware and fears of a Ukrainian attack.
10:00, Fri, May 15, 2026 Updated: 10:12, Fri, May 15, 2026
The Russian leader is facing mounting losses and territory concessions (Image: Getty)
Volodymyr Zelensky believes that comments made by Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine indicate that the tide is turning in the four-year-old conflict. The Russian leader has overseen a decline in his military’s advances with troop losses becoming unsustainable and the country’s economy pushed to the brink.
Speaking after Saturday's scaled-back Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Putin said: "I think that the matter is coming to an end" – referring to the "special military operation" in Ukraine. The comments were the first indication that the Russian despot is thinking about how to draw the war to a close, after initially believing that it would take merely three days to achieve their military objectives. Responding to the comments, Zelensky claimed “we pushed him a little,” as Ukrainian defenders continue to stem Russia’s advance and inflict heavy casualties.
Russia's war in Ukraine continues to put pressure on the country (Image: Getty)
Russia has long used its mass and large armed forces to overwhelm Ukrainian defences, accepting heavy losses for territorial gains.
However, losses have become unsustainable in 2026.
In February, Al Carns, the UK’s Armed Forces minister, said Russia’s effort to train fresh recruits was “becoming more and more difficult” with financial incentives by the Kremlin failing to entice new soldiers to join the front lines.
He added that for the first time more Russian soldiers are dying than are being recruited.
Military intelligence believes that about 30,000 to 35,000 Russian troops are recruited each month and thrown into the “meat grinder” along Ukraine’s eastern front.
Drones have revolutionised the modern battlefield (Image: Getty)
The Washington-based think tank estimated that Moscow lost control of 46 square miles during the month, extending a decline that began in late 2025.
This trend has continued with Russian forces suffering a net loss of territory in Ukraine in April, marking their first such setback since Kyiv’s 2024 incursion into Kursk, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Analysis by ISW shows that Russian advances have “significantly slowed” because Russian forces continue to suffer personnel losses and are increasingly relying on poorly trained and poorly disciplined troops.
The increasing prevalence of drones on the battlefield has seen Russian troops increasingly move away from large mechanised assaults and instead turned to infiltration tactics, with small groups of soldiers advancing on foot through tree lines and abandoned villages in an attempt to slowly weaken Ukrainian positions.
Jaroslava Barbieri, a research fellow at Chatham House, said: "Drones make it increasingly impossible to make meaningful territorial advances, so Russian troops often favour incursions that attempt to infiltrate the front line along different sections.
"But they're not always able to succeed in what they're trying to do as well as prioritise a direction of strategic importance around Donetsk, which they want to capture and sell that as a victory."
Increasing difficulty on the battlefield is compounded by an economy in peril, with Russia forced to slash its economic growth forecast for this year from 1.3% to 0.4% cent despite soaring energy prices caused by the Iran war.
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