Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Russia intended to finish the war in 2025 with a decisive defeat of Ukraine, aiming to cut the country off from the sea - plans that Kyiv says were thwarted.
“The past year was a major test for us. The Russian aggressor sought to end the war against Ukraine - planning to end it with a rout, imposing its conditions from a position of strength,” the general said in a post on Facebook.
According to Syrskyi, Russian forces tried to occupy the remaining parts of Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as the right-bank part of Kherson region. Moscow’s objective, he said, was to push to Odesa and completely cut Ukraine off from the sea. But Ukraine’s Defense Forces prevented critical breakthroughs, disrupted the Russian plans and repeatedly forced Russia to delay scheduled operations.
“We held on. Because our soldiers worked to the limit, with full dedication, inflicting maximum losses on the occupiers and reducing the enemy army by more than 418,000 killed and wounded over the year,” Syrskyi said.
He added that, thanks to the defenders’ results on the battlefield, Russia has been unable to build up its forces for a long time. Each month, more Russian troops are eliminated on the front line than Moscow calls up, he said, while Ukrainian losses declined by 13% over the past year.
“This year proved we can systematically exhaust the enemy and significantly reduce its potential. The Defense Forces did not allow the aggressor to realize its plans, preserved strategic positions and laid the groundwork for further actions,” Syrskyi concluded.
On January 12, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia may be preparing a new large-scale combined strike on Ukraine. He urged people not to ignore air-raid alerts and said the enemy wants to exploit the cold.
Bloomberg reported that in 2025, the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine rose by nearly 30% compared with the previous year. The outlet also analyzed that efforts by U.S. President Donald Trump to push negotiations were followed by more extensive attacks against civilians.
