Kyiv predicts Moscow will have around 200,000 extra forces in Ukraine by the end of the year, according to a report.
Forbes Ukraine cited deputy defence minister Ivan Havryliuk as saying some 800,000 Russian troops were expected in the country by the end of 2024.
Currently, there are around 600,000 soldiers in occupied areas of Ukraine, he said.
Analysts at the Royal United Services Institute say Russian forces have been expanding in size despite suffering heavy casualties, and the Kremlin believes it can sustain the “current rate of attrition” through 2025.
More than 121,000 people evacuated from Kursk districts
More than 121,000 people have been evacuated from nine border districts in Kursk, Russian media is reporting, citing the country’s emergencies ministry.
Ukrainian troops launched a cross-border invasion into the region nearly two weeks ago, in a move that shocked Vladimir Putin and his top military leaders and left them struggling to push Kyiv’s forces back.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier that he was briefed by his top military commander that Ukraine was achieving its goals in Kursk.
Pokrovsk residents have a ‘week or two’ to evacuate in face of Russian advances
Civilians in Pokrosvk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region have just a week or two to flee their homes as Russian troops make rapid gains, a Ukrainian official has said.
A key target city for Moscow, fighting around Pokrovsk remains the heaviest in eastern Ukraine.
Several clashes were reported in the area last week as Kyiv pushed on with its shock invasion of Russia’s Kursk border region.
Serhiy Dobriak, the head of Pokrovsk’s military administration, said residents should leave as quickly as they can.
They have “a week or two, no more”, he told Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service.
He said authorities have capacity to evacuate at least 1,000 people per day, but only around half that amount is currently leaving.
Some 53,000 people, including nearly 4,000 children, remain in the city.
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