Ukraine war latest: Zelensky warns Putin planning new mobilization wave, reveals figures showing Russian losses exceed recruitment

Key developments on July 25-26:

• 'Putin preparing to send more Russians to war' — Zelensky warns of mobilization, reveals figures showing Russian losses exceed recruitment
• Romania shoots down third drone in three days as tensions rise over Russian airspace violations
• Wildberries hides military goods in search results after Ukrainian strikes hammer warehouses
• Ukraine strikes Chornomornaftogaz facility in Crimea, Russian drone relay systems and logistics bridge, military says
• Russia preparing to receive additional North Korean troops, Zelensky says

President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on July 25, citing intelligence reports, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "preparing the conditions for expanding mobilization" as the toll of mounting Russian losses on the battlefield continues to surpass Russian recruitment efforts.

In his evening address on July 25, Zelensky said that Moscow enlisted 221,000 people into the Russian military thus far in 2026, while sustaining nearly 225,500 losses among Russian soldiers, including 131,000 killed and almost 93,000 wounded this year alone.

"A significant share of those wounds are severe, as frontline medical care in Russia is catastrophically poor," Zelensky said.

Ukrainian officials have warned throughout the summer of a new wave of Russian mobilization, as the Kremlin continues to come up short of its recruitment goals while casualty rates intensify.

"Putin is preparing to simply send more Russians to war. He disguises it with different words and signals, but that is what he is preparing to do," the president added.

While reliable data on Russian military recruitment efforts is not possible to verify, previous reports by Ukrainian intelligence claimed that about 70,500 new Russian soldiers signed contracts in the first three months of 2026, falling short of the Russian Defense Ministry's goal by about 30,000.

For comparison, about 90,000 contracts were signed during that same period last year, according to Janis Kluge, a Russia expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).

Zelensky latest comments come amid a chorus of warnings that Moscow is planning to recruit more soldiers in the coming months.

"We have clear intelligence that Russia is preparing a new and quite significant wave of mobilization for the fall. Currently, the Russians are losing more troops on the front than they are recruiting," Zelensky said a day earlier on July 24.

Romania shoots down third drone in three days as tensions rise over Russian airspace violations

A Romanian Air Force F-16 fighter jet shot down a drone that violated Romanian airspace on July 26, marking the third such incident in three days, President Nicușor Dan wrote on X .

The drone was shot down at 10:13 a.m. over Romanian territorial waters in the Sulina–Chilia area of the Danube Delta, near the border with Ukraine.

According to an investigation by Romania's Prosecutor General's Office, the drone shot down on July 24 was a Shahed-type UAV used by Russia in its war against Ukraine. Investigations into the drones downed on July 25 and July 26 are ongoing.

"It is inadmissible and intolerable for the Russian Federation to continue violating Romania's airspace, which is also NATO and European Union airspace. Such actions are unacceptable, and we treat them with the utmost seriousness, together with our allies," Dan wrote on X.

The president added that Romania's diplomatic protest against Russia would be based on the findings of the investigations.

Soon afterward, Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had summoned Russia’s ambassador.

These are not the first drone incursion incidents in Romanian territory. On May 29, a Russian drone struck a residential building in the Romanian city of Galați, injuring two people.

Romania's Defense Ministry said previous drone incidents had also been recorded in January 2025, February 2025, and April 2026.

Wildberries hides military goods in search results after Ukrainian strikes hammer warehouses

Russia's largest online retailer, Wildberries, has stopped displaying military-related goods in response to searches that refer directly to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to reports published on July 26.

The development comes after seven of the company's warehouses were hit in a series of Ukrainian strikes beginning July 18. Kyiv has said that the facilities were targeted in order to disrupt Russian army logistics.

Wildberries offers a number of dual-use items that can be used on the battlefield against Ukraine on its platform, including bulletproof vests and fiber-optic cable for drones.

Following the July attacks, the company has now reportedly hidden such goods from the results of search terms such as "everything for the SVO" and "SVO" — the Russian acronym for "special military operation," the Kremlin's official euphemism for the all-out war in Ukraine.

When users enter the search query "everything for the SVO" on the marketplace's website or app, the platform now returns the message "No suitable products found."

The Moscow Times reported that the same search previously returned more than 200,000 products.  A screenshot shared by the Myrotvorets project — on online watchdog tracking anti-Ukrainian aggression — shows that the search previously returned military helmets among the results.

At the same time, military-related goods remain available on the marketplace. Bulletproof vests and protective helmets can still be found in the "Sport" category.

According to Vot Tak, searches such as "goods for SVO" and "SVO accessories" still return military first-aid kits, backpacks, radios, chevrons, and various flags. The marketplace also lists FPV drones and their components.

As Ukrainian attacks on Russian infrastructure continue to intensify, Wildberries, frequently compared to e-commerce giant Amazon, has been severely impacted by drone strikes on several warehouses belonging to the company.

Some of its most important logistics centers have come under attack over the past week, including hubs in St. Petersburg, Tver, Moscow Oblast, and Voronezh, as well as in Russian-occupied Crimea. The strikes may have cost the company billions in damage.

The company's banking arm was sanctioned by the EU in July over its financial contribution to the Russian budget. Wildberries also plays a significant role in Russia's consumer economy, accounting for almost 50% of Russia’s online retail market.

Ukraine strikes Chornomornaftogaz facility in Crimea, Russian drone relay systems and logistics bridge, military says

Ukrainian forces struck a Chornomornaftogaz facility and relay equipment used to control Russian strike drones in Russian-occupied Crimea, as well as a bridge in the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast overnight on July 26, Ukraine’s General Staff reported in a round-up of significant strikes over the past day.

Damage to the Chornomornaftogaz facility near the village of Vnukovo on the peninsula was confirmed, though the General Staff did not specify which elements of the facility were affected, the report said.

Following Russia’s launch of its war against Ukraine in 2014, oil rigs belonging to the state joint-stock company Chornomornaftogaz were seized by Russia and have since been used for the extraction, storage, and transportation of natural gas and petroleum products, as well as to supply the fuel and energy needs of Russian occupation forces on the peninsula.

Another strike targeted ground-based relay equipment used to control Russian Shahed and Gerbera-type strike drones in the Chornomorske area of Crimea.

The relay equipment extends the opperational range, improves the stability, and enhances the quality of control links for attack drones used by Russian forces to strike Ukrainian territory.

Other key targets in the General Staff update included a road bridge in the Vyselky area of Donetsk Oblast, a drone storage facility near Chervonopopivka, and a Russian troop concentration in Purdivka, Luhansk Oblast.

Russia preparing to receive additional North Korean troops, Zelensky says

Zelensky said on July 25 that Russia is preparing to receive an additional 30,000 North Korean troops to support its war against Ukraine, as military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang continues to deepen.

"Russia wants to receive another 30,000 troops from North Korea," Zelensky said in his nightly address. "Since June, preparations have been underway in Russia's Voronezh region to receive them."

Zelensky added that North Korea is preparing to supply Russia with additional military equipment.

North Korea has become one of Russia's key military partners since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In addition to supplying ammunition and other weapons, Pyongyang has deployed troops to support Russian operations.

Ukraine has said around 12,000 North Korean soldiers participated in Russia's 2024 counteroffensive in Kursk Oblast aimed at pushing Ukrainian forces out of the region.