A belated realization: The Kremlin stated that the “special military operation” has turned into a “real war”
5 July 18:12
The West is to blame for the fact that the “special military operation” in Ukraine has escalated into a war that has now been going on for five years, said Russian Presidential Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. According to him, if Kyiv had not received assistance from NATO, the conflict would not have reached such proportions, but now “a real war is raging.” This is reported by "Komersant Ukrainian", citing Russian propaganda media.
“It all began as a special military operation. It continues as a war because Kyiv is backed by Berlin, Paris, The Hague, Oslo, and, unfortunately, Washington,” Peskov said in an interview with propagandist Pavel Zarubin.
He explained that NATO countries are helping Ukrainian soldiers “target Russian facilities with foreign weapons” using their entire “infrastructure,” including satellites. “Under these circumstances, the Kyiv regime is capable of anything,” Peskov noted.
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The “special military operation” has now lasted longer than World War I and World War II combined. By June 2026, Russian losses had reached 1.4 million people, including up to 450,000 killed, according to estimates by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). As of July 3, more than 230,600 of the dead had been identified by name.
At the same time, in the first half of 2026, the casualty ratio between Russia and Ukraine, according to CSIS, rose to 8:1, compared to 2:1–3:1 for most of the war. Analysts estimate that, largely due to the widespread use of drones, the Ukrainian Armed Forces neutralized between 30,000 and 34,000 enemy personnel each month, which exceeded the rate of recruitment of new contract soldiers—about 27,000 per month. The number of Russian military personnel killed in Ukraine is already more than nine times greater than all the losses suffered by the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation in wars since 1945.
Despite these massive losses, the Russian Federation’s offensive, according to researchers, has now virtually stalled. The average rate of advance in the Donetsk region is 50–90 meters per day. This is one of the slowest rates of advance in wars over the past century.
In the spring of 2026, Russian forces lost more territory than they had captured for the first time since August 2024: in April and May, net losses totaled about 400 km². Russia currently controls about 118,000 km, or roughly 20% of Ukraine, of which 75,000 km were captured after February 2022.
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