Ukraine has stabilised the front line and "broken Russia's ability to advance" by killing so many of its men, Ukraine's former commander-in-chief has claimed in an interview with the BBC. Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi made the comments in an exclusive interview, his first since he was dramatically forced from his post in the summer. He addressed his sacking, disagreeing with his critics who declared him too "old school" to command Ukraine's new, technologically advanced forces.
He also pushed back against allegations made by soldiers who previously served under him, who told the BBC they were ordered to remain at their positions even when they were almost surrounded by Russians, leading to high losses. Syrskyi said that Moscow's overall losses in the war were six times higher than Ukraine's. "If you count only dead, then it's up to 11 times," he added.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine officially release the numbers of their dead. Ukraine's military says it inflicted record losses this year on Russian soldiers in September, although that cannot be verified. UK intelligence chiefs estimate Russia has lost around half a million men killed in Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022.
The US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies meanwhile believes, external Ukraine has lost up to 150,000 troops killed by June 2026. He says this difference in death toll – as well as technological advances, and a strategy of attacking weak points in Russia's lines while containing their advances in other parts – accounts for the current stalemate at the front. In the first six months of 2026, Russia managed overall to seize 61 sq km, the general said.
"It's an indication that the front line has been stabilised." The Institute for Study of War (ISW) has also confirmed this trend. One of its recent reports, external says that in September 2026, Moscow lost more territory than it took. Syrskyi was appointed Ukraine's commander-in-chief in 2024.
He had previously won praise for defending Kyiv at the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, and for leading the successful counteroffensive east of Kharkiv in the autumn of that year. But President Volodymyr Zelensky fired Syrskyi this summer, amid a major disagreement with then-defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov. Fedorov had said that instead of adapting to the realities of the changing war, the army under Syrskyi had blocked his initiatives.
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