Russian military blogger says troops have been stuck on the frontlines without a break since October, the latest sign that Putin's forces are stretched thin

• Russian forces in Zaporizhia have been on the frontlines without a break for nine months, a military blogger wrote.
• Putin had promised that Russians who volunteered to fight in Ukraine would get long vacations and job security.

A Russian military blogger says Russian forces in the city of Zaporizhia have not gotten a break from being on the frontlines since last year, yet another indication that Vladimir Putin's forces are low on replacements, according to military analysts.

The blogger claimed on Telegram that Russian forces who were mobilized in September have been stuck fighting since October without any vacations, according to an assessment by the Institute for the Study of War on Thursday.

The blogger cited in ISW's assessment said on Telegram that being on the frontlines for nine months has taken a significant toll on soldiers.

While some Russian commanders have tried to give soldiers a break, they later faced retaliation from higher-ranking officers, the blogger wrote.

Russian forces "have not been able to rotate these mobilized personnel out of these positions because there are no available personnel to replace them with," ISW's assessment said, noting the report from the frontlines "supports ISW's previous assessment that Russian forces likely lack combat-ready reserves."

Being stuck on the frontlines can take a serious toll on an army's ability to fight.

The US Army determined during World War 2 that the "breaking point for a soldier on the front line was somewhere between 60 and 240 days, depending on the intensity and frequency of combat," according to an article published by the National World War 2 Museum.

Russian troops stuck on the front since October would have been fighting for more than 240 days.

The grueling time on the frontlines appears to violate Putin's promise reported in Newsweek that Russians who volunteered to fight in Ukraine would be guaranteed long vacations and job security.

The psychological toll of Putin's war in Ukraine on Russian forces has been extensively reported on.

One Russian inmate told The New York Times last month that he believed he was signing up to become an army construction worker when a government official recruited him from prison. Instead, he was sent to the frontlines in eastern Ukraine and captured by Ukrainian forces a few days later.

Other Russian soldiers said that they were "fucking fooled like little kids" and had no clue they were being sent to a warzone.

In one audio recording previously obtained by The Times, a Russian soldier told his mother during a phone conversation that "no one told us we were going to war. They warned us one day before we left."