Russian forces

Russian forces refers to Russia's military, encompassing ground, air, missile, and naval arms under the Russian Ministry of Defence, together with parallel Wagner Group successor formations and Rosgvardia paramilitary units engaged in the Ukraine war.

Russian forces entered 2026 with territorial momentum but decelerating advance rates. By the four weeks of 28 April to 26 May 2026, Russia net-lost 100 square miles of Ukrainian territory, including a 38 sq mile net loss in the single week of 19-26 May, the largest single-week territorial loss of 2026. The January-May 2026 net advance stood at only 104 sq km against 1,619 sq km in the same period of 2025, a collapse in territorial gain of over 93%.

The attrition cost of those diminishing advances has risen sharply: Russian forces suffered 179 losses per square kilometre of advance in 2026, compared with 67 losses per sq km in 2025, a near-tripling of the human cost per unit of ground gained. Mediazona has recorded confirmed dates of death for 202,000 Russian soldiers as of 22 May 2026. Putin declared a unilateral 32-hour Easter truce on 19 April 2026, immediately violated by both sides.

The connection between Russian forces and European energy markets is direct: Russian gas and LNG revenues fund the military budget, which allocates 38-40% of all federal spending to defence. The EU's 25 April 2026 Russian LNG ban is designed to reduce the revenue stream funding this military effort.

At the UN General Assembly's 7-8 July 2026 embargo debate, the EU criticised Cuban participation in Russian military forces alongside its criticism of Cuba's Ukraine Ceasefire vote, urging Havana to end the practice. The remark points to a Cuban-mercenary pipeline into Russian forces but adds no new operational detail beyond the diplomatic rebuke itself.