Now, he said, the Russians have a manpower advantage of around five to one. Only about 20% of the casualties his battalion takes are replaced by new recruits, and the mobilized men who arrive tend to be older than those who volunteered at the start of the war. As in other brigades, the average age of infantrymen has ticked up over 40.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said that Ukraine’s manpower shortage was a hangover from last summer’s failed offensive, when Kyiv took massive casualties. The situation should improve by next year, he said, when men who are now being drafted would be trained and ready to join the fight. In addition, Western production of artillery ammunition should increase by the end of this year.
Rob. If you "average infantryman" is over 40 you've lost and you're bleeding out.
This is sickening. They've killed or maimed every young man in the country that they could catch and force to the front and now they're working their way down the calendar to keep this going.
You also have to keep in mind how fucked up the demographics in Ukraine are. For some weird reason, birthrates were really low in the 90s while many people left the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Ukraine