Analysis of Russia’s potential collapse from war in Ukraine, highlighting economic, demographic, and security risks.
smallwarsjournal.com
"At the rate of conquest to date, Russia would need twelve more years to take the remaining 80% of Ukraine with intervening culminations of Russian troop formations likely slowing progress while being required to hold occupied areas lest an insurgency retake them. If it took three years for Russia to amass 1,000,000 casualties and 250,000 killed, the same loss rate over 12 more years suggests Russian casualties could swell to 5 million with 1,000,000 killed. Russia’s human capacity issues are already critical and moving toward a disaster scenario. Even if we cut the extrapolated losses by half, the Russian state and economy cannot afford 2.5 million more casualties with 500,000 more killed.
Hypothetically, even if Russia managed to conquer Ukraine, it would likely need to leave a garrison of between 13-20 Russian troops per 1,000 Ukrainians to hold Ukraine while incurring guerrilla warfare casualties and losses expected from a long Ukrainian insurgency. Ukrainians have been returning to Ukraine since 2023, with an
estimated population of 39,134,615 as of this writing. 39,134,615 / 1000 = 39,134.615.
39,000 x 13 = 507,000 total Russian troops garrisoned to cover 13 troops per 1,000 Ukrainians at the low range, and 39,000 x 20 = 780,000 troops total Russian troops per 1,000 Ukrainians at the highest range, using Seth G. Jones CSIS estimates for successful occupation.
When, under these circumstances, would the GPF personnel vulnerability index score now showing critical risk to Russia’s human capacity to run the industrial and tax base go off the charts to reach breakdown-level?
Our estimate that Putin must be defeated in Ukraine by the Fall of 2026 to avert Russia’s collapse implies that if Putin’s war enters its fifth year in 2027, the personnel vulnerability scores in Russia will go from critical to breakdown. This, as two more years of warfare in Ukraine could mean 2/3 of roughly 1,000,000 more casualties, and 2/3 of some 250,000 more deaths at about 660,000 casualties and 166,666 deaths."