Most Russian recruits deployed to the Ukrainian battlefield have a life expectancy of just 20 to 35 minutes, according to reports.
The New York Post reported Friday, citing Russian local media and Russian military bloggers, that Russian recruits are falling victim to Ukrainian drone attacks.
Outnumbered and outgunned compared with Russian forces, the Ukrainian military is actively using drones to strike not only the front lines but also deep into Russian territory as it mounts counterattacks. Peter Frankopan, a professor of global history at the University of Oxford in Britain, also argued in a contribution to the U.S. foreign policy magazine Foreign Policy that Russian recruits are deployed to the front from the moment they enter training camps, leaving them with an expected survival period of just 10 days to three weeks.
The New York Post reported that the Russian military is desperately clinging to recruitment to fill what it called Russian President Vladimir Putin's "meat grinder." Russian officials said late last year that they had recruited some 420,000 troops on one-year terms.
However, even Russian state media predicted that the scale of recruitment would fall by about 30% this year. To encourage voluntary enlistment, the Russian military is offering recruits enlistment contract bonuses of up to $80,000 (about 123 million won) or debt forgiveness benefits of up to $140,000 (about 215 million won).
According to multiple Western sources, total Russian military casualties from the war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, are estimated at more than 1 million. Monthly casualties are now known to exceed 30,000.
The Russian economy has also been hit, with Ukrainian drone attacks targeting both front and rear areas sharply reducing Russia's oil refining capacity. The Ukrainian military this month carried out a large-scale drone attack targeting the largest oil refinery in the capital, Moscow, and the refinery is reported to be unable to operate until next year.
Reuters analyzed that Ukrainian drone attacks have reduced the daily processing capacity of Russian oil refineries by about 700,000 barrels. As a result, more than half of Russia's regions have implemented fuel rationing. Analysts say it is unusual for the world's third-largest oil producer to introduce fuel rationing.
Alexander Lunin, a Russian blogger and veteran of the war in Ukraine, criticized that "Russian military commanders are periodically torturing soldiers," warning that "a rebellion could break out soon."
