Russian troops in Ukraine number 462,000, and 35,000 are deployed in the occupied Ukrainian territories, said Vadym Skybytskyi, representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

"This number of troops on our territories allows the Russians to rotate: to withdraw those units and subunits that have lost their combat capability - where the number of personnel is less than 50% - to the rear areas. And after recovery and replenishment, they go back to the front line," said the GUR representative.

He also stated that Russia's defense industry is capable of producing 2 million rounds of ammunition per year. These are 122-mm and 152-mm shells. At the same time, the Russian industry was unable to fully meet the needs of the Russian army in 2023, with a deficit of about half a million shells.

According to intelligence, at first the Russians transported shells from Belarus, then bought them in Iran, and then large batches of ammunition from North Korea.

Skybytskyi noted that Russia plans to increase ammunition production in 2024, but has a number of problems related to the lack of components, qualified personnel, and production facilities.

"Our estimate is that Russia will have a deficit of 500,000 ammunition and will try to find it somewhere," he summarized.