Russia’s armed forces are suffering dual pressures from significant battlefield casualties and struggles to recruit replacements, underscoring Moscow’s growing challenges in its war on Ukraine.
Nearly 500,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, the head of Britain’s largest intelligence agency said, after earlier UK assessments said the country had recorded more than 30,000 monthly casualties this year.
At the same time, Moscow’s push to recruit contract fighters is showing “signs of strain,” the Institute for the Study of War said: The Kremlin is offering easier paths to citizenship for non-Russian fighters and debt relief for others, while also using force and forms of pressure to get some to sign up.
