Russian People Turn Passive in the War, Spurring Predictions That the Break-Up of the Federation Is Inevitable

Soldiers are told they are all ‘numbers’ who could be easily replaced if they die in battle.

AP/Dmitri Lovetsky
Russian conscripts at St. Petersburg during a send-off event before they head to assigned military units for mandatory one-year military service, May 23, 2023. AP/Dmitri Lovetsky

Western defense officials now estimate that over the last 16 months 200,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in Ukraine. This is almost triple the casualties suffered by the Soviet Union during a decade in Afghanistan. Doubts are growing that Russia can sustain this cost. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union had twice the population of today’s Russia. 

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