Ukraine's front line has stabilized and Russia's capacity to advance has been severely degraded by troop losses, according to Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine's former commander-in-chief, in an exclusive BBC interview.
Syrskyi claimed Moscow's overall losses in the war are six times higher than Ukraine's, rising to 11 times higher when counting only deaths. Neither Russia nor Ukraine officially releases casualty figures. UK intelligence estimates Russia has lost around 500,000 men killed since February 2022. The US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies assessed Ukraine lost up to 150,000 troops killed by June 2026.
In the first six months of 2026, Russia seized 61 square kilometers overall, Syrskyi said, indicating stabilization. The Institute for Study of War confirmed this trend, reporting in September 2026 that Moscow lost more territory than it took that month.
Syrskyi was fired this summer by President Volodymyr Zelensky following a public disagreement with then-defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov. Zelensky initially removed Fedorov, but mass street protests forced him to also remove Syrskyi, replacing him with Maj Gen Mykhailo Drapatyi, 43.
Syrskyi told the BBC he disagreed with Fedorov over weapons procurement. Fedorov "didn't take into consideration the interests of the army" and created "imbalance" by prioritizing drones while neglecting front-line equipment like unmanned ground vehicles and pick-up trucks, Syrskyi said. The army received only half the drones needed, he added.
Critics portrayed Syrskyi as too "old school" to lead Ukraine's technological forces. Syrskyi rejected this characterization. Under his command, drone use reached unprecedented levels with deep strikes exceeding 2,000 kilometers behind enemy lines, he said. Ukraine created the Unmanned Systems Forces as a separate branch under his leadership, and drones now account for 80 percent of Russia's losses, Syrskyi claimed.
Syrskyi acknowledged that chaotic withdrawals occurred from eastern cities and that soldiers complained about orders to hold positions at any cost. However, he argued Ukraine faced a vastly more powerful adversary. In 2025, Russia had an 18-to-1 advantage in jets and bombs and two-and-a-half times more artillery pieces and shells, he said.
The August 2024 Kursk incursion into Russian territory, which ended in a dramatic spring 2025 retreat, was "a necessity," Syrskyi insisted. Russian forces outnumbered Ukrainian troops six-to-one along front lines at the time. The operation disrupted Russia's offensive and forced Moscow to redirect troops, allowing Ukraine's brigades to recover, he said.
Syrskyi warned European allies to prepare for potential conflict and predicted Ukraine's war would become increasingly technological, involving robots, automated systems and artificial intelligence.