On October 31, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the losses of the Russian army in Ukraine had exceeded 300,000 people. Despite this, Russian troops continue their offensive actions in the areas of Kupyansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Mariupol, and Staromykhailivka. In the past day, there have been 36 armed clashes on the front line.
For any civilized country where the highest value is human life, such losses would be colossal and shocking. This would lead either to the cessation of hostilities or to significant demands from the citizens of the country to overthrow the leadership, which criminally burns its citizens in the furnace of an aggressive war. But even the figure of 300,000 dead is not a psychologically shocking indicator that would have socially resonant consequences for Russia. Firstly, the influence of criminal propaganda, and secondly, the poverty of the majority of Russians, allow the Russian leadership to send people to the front who are either stupefied by propaganda or to recruit people willing to die in war for money.
Fear and poverty are the dominant factors in the existence of the Russian population. These are the two factors that currently form the mobilization resource of the Russian Federation. In Russia, an average of 20,000 people are mobilized into the army every month. Losses on the front lines are replenished as best as they can: prisoners, forced mobilization, conscripts, and contract soldiers. It is difficult to predict which loss rate will become psychologically significant for the Russian army. The continued unchangeability of the highest command staff of the Russian army will contribute to this. The officer corps at the level of platoon and battalion commanders in the Russian army is constantly renewed because they are constantly killed. Reservist officers or cadets are recruited for these positions, some of whom are released from military academies ahead of schedule. The Russian leadership is guided by the fact that potentially mobilizable resources exceed Ukrainian ones fourfold. Therefore, they can and will continue to disregard the value of human life.
In addition to the hundreds of thousands killed, tens of thousands of physically and mentally mutilated "veterans" will become a heavy burden for Russia for many years to come. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine as of July 2023, more than 5,127 Russian citizens have been classified as disabled due to military injuries, according to the publication "Meduza," citing the Federal Register of Disabled Persons (FRID). According to FRID data, the rate of growth in the number of new people with military disabilities continues to set historical records. For example, in May 2023, 279 people received this status, and in June, 322 people. Prior to this, the record increase in "military" disabled people was in April 2023 (232 people). These are the ones who will join the ranks of another lost generation of Russians.
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