Russia’s battlefield casualties are rising and signs are growing of an impending economic crisis.
Moscow cannot recruit enough soldiers to keep up with losses despite huge financial incentives, European officials said, and Moscow’s advance has slowed accordingly. Meanwhile, European efforts to block Russia’s “shadow fleet,” and India slowing Russian energy purchases, drove the country’s oil revenue down 50% in January year-on-year.
The Kremlin still wants to take large parts of Ukraine, but its war spending “may be maxed out,” a leading economics commentator argued: Official Russian data suggests it will have to raise taxes ever higher, while cutting spending in real terms. Still, it is producing 7 million artillery shells a year, about five times US levels.
