Russia sends waves of troops to the front in a brutal fighting style

May was a particularly deadly month for the Russian military in Ukraine, with an average of more than 1,000 soldiers wounded or killed per day, according to the US. British and other Western intelligence services.

But despite the losses, Russia is recruiting 25,000 to 30,000 new soldiers a month — about the same number as are leaving the battlefield, U.S. officials say. That has allowed the military to continue to send wave after wave of troops to Ukraine’s defenses, hoping to overwhelm them and break through the trench lines.

It’s a style of warfare that Russian soldiers liken to being put in a meat grinder, with commanding officers seemingly unaware that they are sending infantry soldiers to their death.

At times, the approach has proven effective, earning Russian military victories at Avdiivka and Bachmut in eastern Ukraine. But Ukrainian and Western officials say the tactics were less successful this spring, when Russia attempted to seize land near the city of Kharkiv.

U.S. officials say Russia has achieved a key goal of President Vladimir Putin by creating a buffer zone along the border to make it more difficult for Ukrainians to invade the country.

But the drive posed no threat to Kharkov and was ultimately stopped by Ukrainian defenses, Western officials said.

“President Putin and Moscow really tried to make big gains, to break through the front lines this spring,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with The New York Times editorial board. “They tried and they failed. They made very small gains and they are paying a very high price.”

At other times, Russian casualties have increased, especially during the attacks on Avdiivka and Bakhmut. But the attacks on those cities were spread over several months. The advance in May, both outside Kharkov and along the Eastern Front, brought more intense periods of Russian wave attacks. British military intelligence analysts said Russian casualty estimates were at that level in May 2011 average 1,200 per daywere the highest of the war.

Last month’s fighting has left the city of Vovchansk, about 40 miles from Kharkiv, completely devastated, where Ukrainians and Russians are locked in a fierce struggle for power.

Russian soldiers have said on Telegram, the social media and messaging platform, that their units are suffering many casualties. Some say their ranks are being cut down by drones, machine gun fire and artillery shelling.

The fact that Russia uses infantry in wave attacks is one of the advantages the country has in the war: the country has a much larger population than Ukraine, which means there are more potential recruits.

But the casualties have forced Russia to send new recruits to Ukraine relatively quickly, meaning the soldiers sent to the front are poorly trained.

The lack of structured training and the need to deploy new recruits to combat operations have limited Russia’s ability to generate more capable units. It also increases the number of victims.

But it’s more complicated than that. The changing nature of modern warfare has also increased the number of deaths in recent months.

The ubiquitous drones have made it easy for both sides to spot and target enemy forces. And mines and cluster munitions make movement across open terrain an almost suicidal undertaking.

At least 350,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded since Putin launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said recently. British estimates put the number of Russians killed or wounded at more than 500,000.

US estimates of casualties in the war are based on satellite images, intercepted communications, social media and news media reports from reporters, as well as official reporting from Russia and Ukraine. But such estimates vary, even within the U.S. government.

Reliable estimates of Ukraine’s casualties are harder to find. Ukrainian officials carefully keep those numbers secret. Several U.S. officials claim they do not have an accurate account. Mr. Zelensky has said 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in the first two years of the war, but U.S. officials say that number appears to underestimate Ukraine’s losses.

Russia carried out a partial mobilization in September 2022, which led to tens of thousands of young men fleeing the country. But Western intelligence analysts say Russia will not need to carry out a new mobilization or conscription this year.

It appears that Russia could continue the current campaign by offering financial incentives to recruits, using prisoners and bringing Russian mercenaries out of Africa.

But the big question this year will be whether Russia’s current strategy can defeat the Ukrainian army, which is finding its defensive footing. Weapons and ammunition from a new $60 billion U.S. aid package are finally reaching the front lines, and Ukrainian commanders no longer have to ration bullets. Russia still outperforms Ukraine, but not by much.

Ukraine has changed its posture, building fortifications and laying minefields to slow the Russian advance. War favors the defender and Ukraine focuses on holding its lines, US officials say.

“What I see is a slowing of the Russian advance and a stabilization of that particular part of the front,” Mr. Austin told reporters in Brussels this month. “A few weeks ago there was concern that we would see a significant breakthrough on the part of the Russians. I don’t think we will see that in the future.”

And Russia’s new buffer zone on the Kharkov border could well be a hollow achievement.

Ukraine has still managed to use longer-range U.S. weapons to attack Russia due to a policy change by the Biden administration that allows the Ukrainian military to use U.S. missiles to strike military targets just across the border.

According to U.S. officials, the change is starting to have an effect, disabling Russian artillery and making it harder for Moscow to attack Kharkov.

The result, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said this month, was that the offensive in Kharkov had proven to be “yet another mistake by Russia.”

“The destruction of Russian terrorist positions and launch sites by our troops, our fighters, near the border is really important,” he said. “It works. Exactly as we expected.”

But despite all of Ukraine’s successes around Kharkiv, more challenges lie ahead. In the coming weeks, U.S. and Western officials expect the fighting to move east and south again as Russia appears ready to deploy troops to make gradual gains.