Especially ethnic minorities
British: Russian East bears brunt of war
03/12/2023, 1:45 p.m
Exact casualty figures in the war against Ukraine cannot be obtained from Moscow. British defense experts also do not give any specific figures, but identify certain regions where the death toll is particularly high.
According to the British government, the Russian leadership is largely shielding residents of large cities from the consequences of the war in Ukraine. A Defense Ministry report said on Sunday that Russia’s richest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, were relatively spared from the “extremely heavy losses.” In many eastern regions, the number of soldiers killed is probably more than 30 times as high as in Moscow.
Ethnic minorities are particularly affected by this imbalance. For example, in the city of Astrakhan, 75 percent of the fallen belonged to the Tatar and Kazakh populations. Shielding the wealthier and more influential parts of the population will probably remain a main concern of the Russian military leadership, according to British intelligence services. The Ministry of Defense in London has been publishing daily information on the course of the war since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, citing intelligence information.
At the end of February, the New York Times estimated that the number of Russian troops killed and wounded in Ukraine was approaching 200,000. US officials warn, however, that the number of victims is difficult to estimate. Moscow is believed to routinely underestimate its war deaths and injuries. The fighting in and around the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut and the town of Soledar is believed to have claimed numerous lives.
According to military analysts, the Russian military is sending poorly trained recruits and ex-convicts to the front lines, directly under Ukrainian fire. However, the loss of life is hardly a problem for Russian President Vladimir Putin. In Russia there is almost no political opposition. Russian propaganda portrays the war as the most important battle since World War II, when more than eight million Soviet soldiers lost their lives.