Rumours are swirling that Ukraine is on the verge of calling for a general mobilisation in the southern and eastern regions on August 29, as casualty figures mount rapidly, according to bne IntelliNews' correspondent in Kyiv. An estimated third of Ukraine’s troops have either been killed or injured in the fighting, according to US intelligence reports.

Ukraine has been increasing its efforts to recruit fresh soldiers in recent months since the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) launched the counter-offensive against the Russian invaders.

Kyiv has been struggling to find fresh fighters willing to go to the front line. Most of those patriotic enough to want to fight all volunteered shortly after the invasion last year, but those unwilling to fight have either left the country or are avoiding the war. Men of military age were barred from leaving the country shortly after the Russians crossed into Ukraine last February.

The exact situation with the fighting is difficult to judge, as the government has strictly controlled access to the front lines and independent reporting from the front line is limited, but the few reports filed suggest that the number of veterans has fallen sharply and they are outnumbered by the number of fresh recruits that have little training and low morale, although the overall mood is one of dogged determination.

The decision to recruit fresh troops with a mobilisation in the southern and eastern regions, if confirmed, was met with criticism by observers, as those regions are mostly occupied by the Russian-speaking population that were pro-Russia before the war, or at least wanted close co-operation with Russia. The east of the country is in general populated by Ukrainian-speaking nationalist in a cultural divide that has long plagued domestic politics.

Ukraine is facing mounting casualties in an increasingly bitter battle with Russia as the AFU redeploys and concentrates its forces on the southern front in the Zaporizhzhya region, following a secret meeting with Nato’s top military commanders on the Polish border two weeks ago.

Nato has been pushing Ukraine’s command to concentrate its forces at few points to break through Russia’s extensive defences and push through to the shores of the Sea of Azov, thus cutting off Russia’s land bridge that connects Crimea to the Russian mainland. But according to reports, after the AFU sustained heavy losses in the first weeks of the counter-offensive, it pulled back and scaled down the assaults in an effort to preserve its manpower.

It seems now the AFU has changed tactics and has launched increasingly successful larger-scale assaults, but is sustaining heavy casualties as a result.

New estimates from unnamed US officials reveal a significant rise in the country's death toll, the BBC reported this week.

Official casualty figures remain a Ukrainian state secret, but a US intelligence report put the number of dead at 70,000, with over 100,000 wounded out of a total force of half a million men and women.

Proportionally, that is some 8% of the entire force killed in action, or nearly one in ten, and if the injured at included then about a third (32%) of the AFU have been killed or wounded in action, according to a recent report citing US officials, as quoted by the New York Times.

Part of the reason for the increased number of casualties is that previously the AFU has been defending against a Russian onslaught, but since last September’s successful operations in Kharkiv and Kherson, where the AFU scored major victories, the tables have been turned and the Russians are now on the defensive and the AFU is on the offensive. Typically an attacking force needs a ratio of three to one advantage in men, as it suffers much higher casualties than the defenders.