A week ago, new estimates came from the British government about the extensive losses Russian military forces have suffered in Ukraine since February 2022.
Russia has lost as many as 180,000 soldiers who have been killed in the war against Ukraine. In addition, tens of thousands of soldiers have deserted, according to the new British figures.
CAPTURED: These Russian soldiers have been captured in Ukraine. Some of them will be prosecuted for war crimes, while others may be released and returned to Russian society. Photo: Mykhaylo Palinchak/SOPA Images/Sipa USA/NTB. view more
And the numbers just keep rising. This week, British intelligence reported that so far in November, Russia has lost an average of 931 soldiers every day, the highest number of casualties since the war began in 2022.
This is in accordance with the figures that the American intelligence service has operated with in the past. In addition, there are 120,000 soldiers who have been wounded in the war.
– Murder, rape and serious crimes
Crimes committed by Russian soldiers who have returned from Ukraine have become increasingly common in Russia. The stories of traumatized soldiers who have killed their wives or completely random victims are many, and often very bloody.
– It is going to be critical, and we have seen a number of cases of these convicts fighting for the Wagner group who returned to society and who immediately after being released were involved in murder, rape, robbery or other serious crimes , says Geir Hågen Karlsen, lieutenant colonel and head teacher in strategic communication at the Norwegian Defense Academy.
EXPERT: Geir Hågen Karlsen. Photo: Marie Røssland / Dagbladet. view more
Many of them have previously been convicted of violence or murder, which creates enormous fear when they return after many months in the war.
– Here we are talking about many hundreds of thousands who have really been ravaged by war and may have been criminals in the first place. And who have been through the hell this war has been. Many have experienced the most horrible things, they have looted and raped and they have killed people, says Karlsen.
Extensive use of drugs
According to a new report from the independent Russian media Verstka, widespread drug use among the Russian soldiers has been revealed. Around 15 percent of the Russian soldiers in Ukraine use narcotic drugs, such as amphetamines and cannabis.
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According to the report, it should be easy to get hold of the drugs, even on the front line in the war.
– Combination of far too much of the brutality of the war, psychiatry and extensive drug abuse. It will be a big burden for Russia in the future. And perhaps for our part as well, which is a neighboring country and will have to deal with Russia in the future, says Geir Hågen Karlsen.
Russian soldiers who have fought in Ukraine have told throughout the war about chaotic conditions at the front. They complain of inadequate training, lack of equipment and poor management. The losses are great, and several have called the war senseless.
Torn
The British newspaper The Guardian have spoken to another Russian soldier who tells of nightmarish experiences at the front in Luhansk.
Pointing to Russia
Aleksej Agafanov was called up for service together with 570 other conscripts in Voronezh in south-west Russia a year ago.
– I saw men being torn to pieces right in front of me. Most of the ward is gone, destroyed. It was hell, he says, and says that the head of the department ran away just before they were attacked by Ukrainian drones.
Posttraumatic stress disorder
This is just one of many stories from the war. When peace finally returns to Ukraine, thousands of soldiers are likely to come home with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
– Many of them have committed murder and been arrested again after they returned home from the war in Ukraine. Both in Ukraine and in Russia, the consequences of the war will linger for more than a generation when it comes to such things, says Arne Bård Dalhaug, retired lieutenant general and former chief of the Defense Staff.
EXPERT: Lieutenant General Arne Bård Dalhaug. Photo: Lars Eivind Bones / Dagbladet Show more
He believes they will have a much higher proportion of dysfunctional families as a result of the brutal war.
– We also had that in Norway after the war with post-traumatic disorders as a consequence of the war with subsequent problems for the generation that came after, says Dalhaug.
Figures from previous conflicts show that around 20 per cent of soldiers who are in intense fighting in Ukraine may develop PTSD, says Professor Neil Greenberg from King’s College in London. He himself was a medical officer in the British military for 23 years, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he conducts online training for the Ukrainian armed forces.
– Russia has no capacity or tradition to take care of veterans. They will be left to themselves. The ripple effects spread from the people who have gone through the war. You can already see that the number of births is falling in Russia, says Dalhaug.
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Mortality among Russian men has long been high in Russia. There are several and complex reasons for this, but crime, alcohol, unhealthy lifestyles and drugs have been contributing factors.
Then came the wars in Ukraine.
During 2021, the population of Russia fell by over one million people. It is a historic decline, and the war in Ukraine will give President Vladimir Putin even more gloomy numbers on the table.
The population of Russia is plummeting
Vladimir Putin has previously stated that the demographic decline is a security problem for Russia. Just before Putin took over presidential power in Russia in 2000, there were over 148 million people living in the country. That figure had by 2022 shrunk to around 143 million, according to figures from the UN.
Now the war in Ukraine appears to be a serious long-term threat to the gender imbalance in Russia as Russian men become cannon fodder in the war. The country will struggle with a demographic crisis for many years to come.
Declining morale at the front line
At the same time, there have been reports from the battlefields about declining morale among the Russian soldiers. Secret recordings of phone calls from Russian soldiers calling home from the battlefields show that more and more soldiers want to go home from the war.
The intelligence chief’s wife is allegedly poisoned
The footage was recently obtained by the Associated Press (AP) news agency in the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine.
– You don’t die like some war hero here, you die like a goddamn earthwormsaid one of the soldiers when he spoke to his brother on the phone.
Recordings of the secret conversations of the soldiers talking to their loved ones from the front lines in Ukraine provide a rare glimpse of the war through Russian eyes.
– The bill for Russia will obviously be very large when the war is over. It is a constant deterioration for the whole society. Economically and technologically, they lag behind. They lose many people, have a brain drain, many traumatized people and Russia comes out badly from this in every possible way, says Arne Bård Dalhaug to Dagbladet.
2023-12-02 14:43:52
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