Military expert Oleksandr Kovalenko stated this, Obozrevatel reports.Russian military losses in Ukraine showed a troubling pattern last month, with 31,190 personnel killed, wounded, or captured—but what's raising alarm bells among military analysts is the composition of those casualties. More than 20,000 were fatalities, marking a record-high proportion that experts say is virtually unprecedented in modern warfare.The dramatic shift in casualty ratios stems from Russia's evolving battlefield tactics. Facing severe equipment shortages, Moscow has abandoned the armored assaults that characterized earlier phases of the war. Instead, Russian forces now rely heavily on dismounted infantry or troops transported in light, unarmored vehicles—a change that has proven devastatingly costly when these units come under Ukrainian fire."The minimized use of armored vehicles in combat zones means when attacks fail, survival rates plummet," the expert notes. Light transport vehicles offer virtually no protection compared to tanks or armored personnel carriers, turning what might have been wounded soldiers into fatalities.Despite these mounting losses, Russian forces managed to capture 482 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in November—nearly double the gains from September and October combined. The most significant breakthrough came in the Huliaipole direction in the Zaporizhzhia region, where Russian advances exceeded 200 square kilometers. However, this territorial progress came at a staggering cost: roughly 64 casualties per square kilometer captured, one of the lowest efficiency rates of the year.The equipment picture tells an equally stark story of Russian military degradation. Tank losses have plummeted to just 71 units in November—not because Russian armor has become more survivable, but because Moscow simply has far fewer tanks to lose. The analysis contrasts this with October 2023, when Russia lost 531 tanks in a single month, or January 2025's loss of over 330 tanks."Russia has transformed from a country with one of the world's largest tank fleets into one fighting on motorcycles and civilian cars," the report states bluntly.Artillery systems showed their lowest loss rate since December 2023, with 617 units destroyed in November. Analysts attribute this to the exhaustion of Soviet-era stockpiles rather than improved Russian tactics. The assessment predicts that barrel artillery shortages, already emerging in 2025, will reach crisis levels in 2026.Looking at the broader picture, Russian forces have captured 3,847 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in 2025 while suffering 382,960 casualties—a ratio of 99 casualties per square kilometer. This efficiency rate is worse than what Russia achieved in both 2023 and 2024, suggesting the Kremlin's ability to translate manpower into territorial gains is steadily deteriorating.The report concludes with a stark warning for Ukrainian defenders: the shift to infantry-heavy Russian tactics requires an urgent response combining both passive defenses like fortifications and active anti-personnel weapons systems. Without addressing this tactical evolution, analysts caution, territorial losses could accelerate further despite the unsustainable Russian casualty rates.For Moscow, the message is equally grim. The "demilitarization" that Russian leader Vladimir Putin promised to inflict on Ukraine appears instead to be hollowing out Russia's own military capabilities at an alarming rate.