Kremlin will be forced to announce large-scale mobilization in 2025 or end war - Budanov

Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate, said this while answering questions from graduates of the Kyiv School of Economics, Ukrinform reports, citing Forbes Ukraine.

"If the protracted war continues, then no later than the summer of 2025, Russia will face a dilemma: either to end it or to announce another large-scale mobilization," he said.

According to Budanov, the Kremlin will take its time "because the Russian leadership thinks that large-scale mobilization can seriously shake the political situation."

According to him, problems with human resources in Russia began about three months ago. Before that, there were no problems, Budanov said.

He recalled that the enemy announced a partial mobilization at the beginning of the full-scale war. Later, large sums of money were offered to sign contracts with the Russian army. But in this way, Russia managed to mobilize not enough people. All others went to war from prisons, as volunteer fighters or from conscript service, people were immediately transferred to contract service, Budanov said.

"Depending on the region, the sums reached as much as two million Russian roubles. This is a huge amount of money for Russia. The answer is obvious - the flow of volunteer fighters is decreasing catastrophically. And in recent months, the Russian army has faced a personnel shortage for the first time. Russia has a mobilization plan, and almost a 10% shortage was recorded," Budanov said.

He stressed that the Russian Defense Ministry is trying to rectify the situation.