In its intelligence update, the British Defense Ministry says that the impact of Russia’s extremely heavy frontline casualties varies dramatically across the country’s regions, with Moscow and St Petersburg relatively unscathed, and ethnic minorities taking the biggest hit.
The ministry tweeted:
- “As Russia continues to suffer extremely heavy casualties, the impact varies dramatically across Russia’s regions. In proportion to the size of their population, the richest cities of Moscow and St Petersburg have been left relatively unscathed. This is especially true for the families of the country’s elite.”
- “On 21 February 2023, Russian senior officials were photographed making up the front two rows of the audience of President Putin’s state of the nation speech. None of these are known to have children serving in the military.”
- “In many of the Eastern regions, deaths are likely running, as a percentage of population, at a rate 30+ times higher than in Moscow. In places, ethnic minorities take the biggest hit; in Astrakhan some 75% of casualties come from the minority Kazakh and Tatar populations. As the Russian MoD seeks to address its continued deficit of combat personnel, insulating the better-off and more influential elements of Russian society will highly likely remain a major consideration.”
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1634842918258356227
Read also:
- Moscow turns to regions to replace losses and boost forces in Ukraine (July 2022)
- Inter-ethnic animosity saps effectiveness of Russia’s army in Ukraine (May 2022)
- “Russian” combat losses in Ukraine appear to be disproportionately non-Russians or ethnic Russians from rural areas (March 2022)
