I was looking at how Russia is able to keep sustaining these kind of losses. The answers just make me more sad.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/22/high-russian-death-toll-fails-shift-opinion-ukraine-war
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Before the war, such casualties would have seemed unimaginable. Now, it appears that the generals hardly care as long as they meet Putin’s demands.” Despite the losses, Russia is able to replenish its ranks by recruiting up to 30,000 new soldiers a month – roughly as many as are leaving the battlefield. This has allowed the military to consistently deploy wave after wave of troops against Ukrainian defences.
The key role is played by financial incentives, which have raised Russian military salaries to unprecedented levels, said Denis Volkov, the director of the Levada Center, a polling and sociological research company in Moscow.
In some regions, Russians who sign a contract with the army will receive an upfront payment of up to 3m roubles (£23,800), on top of the monthly minimum wage of £1,757 – about four times the average salary in Russia.
So that's over 4x the average yearly salary as sign-up bonus.
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Volkov believes that one of the main reasons behind Russian society’s apparent indifference to the rising death toll lies in the composition of the army.
Statistics show that most of those who are fighting and dying are either volunteers from impoverished Russian regions or former convicts, rather than mobilised soldiers forced to fight or those who signed a contract before the war.
Despite pressure from his generals, Vladimir Putin has reportedly resisted declaring a new mobilisation – a deeply unpopular move that would forcibly pull hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens from their everyday lives.
“The bulk of the men currently fighting do so voluntarily for substantial financial incentives. Society views it as their choice, leading to a relatively calm reaction to their deaths,” Volkov said.
“The wives of those who die receive significant compensation, while their children are granted free university education. As a result, the families believe that the government is looking after their interests.
“For many in large cities like Moscow and St Petersburg, the war still feels very distant,” Volkov said, noting that most enlisted soldiers come from smaller regional towns and cities in parts of Russia where stable, well-paying jobs are difficult to find.
Simultaneously, the Kremlin and its propaganda machine have launched a campaign that sociologists refer to as an effort to “glorify” the deaths, portraying fallen soldiers as heroes.
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“Under Putin, the value of life has further diminished, while he simultaneously cultivated a cult of death,” said Dina Khapaeva, a Russian professor at Georgia Institute of Technology in the US, who focuses her research on historical memory.
Khapaeva highlighted a speech by Putin delivered in front of the mothers of fallen soldiers, in which he seemingly praised their children’s deaths. “Your son lived, and his goal has been achieved,” Putin said. “And that means he did not leave life in vain.”
Vladimir Solovyov, a popular Russian propagandist, further reinforced the idea that sacrifices made for the state were rewarded in the afterlife, telling his viewers there was no need to fear death because “we will go to heaven”.
Putin is offering Russians “the joy of death”, said Khapaeva.
“Instead of a meaningless, hopeless, impoverished life, a Russian is offered the chance to die ‘for the motherland’.”
Sickening, preying on the impoverished with money incentives and WW2 plus religious propaganda to send them to their death while committing genocide in Ukraine.
In 2023, 13.5 million Russians lived below the poverty line, which is about 9.3% of the population.
With 30,000 recruits a month Putin can drag this out :( Please vote for Harris.
The downside of sanctions, or rather the cynical sadistic retort to sanctions. Create more poverty, create more recruits. Of course blaming the West for the economic woes.
