In a harrowing video filmed near the frontlines in eastern Ukraine, two desperate Russian soldiers, Vyacheslav Trutnev and Dmitry Ostrovsky, recount fleeing their positions after being ordered on what they called a “suicide mission.” Berating their commander for sending “the hungry and freezing in droves to their deaths,” the men’s testimony offers a rare glimpse into Russia’s brutal warfare tactics, likened by its own troops to being thrown into a meat grinder.
Catastrophic Casualties Fail to Deter Russian War Machine
Throughout the conflict in Ukraine, Russia has suffered staggering losses, with some units losing up to 90% of their original personnel. Western assessments estimate that a shocking 115,000 Russians have been killed and another 500,000 wounded—a toll 10 times higher than Soviet losses during the decade-long war in Afghanistan. September alone saw an average of over 1,000 Russian soldiers killed or injured daily, making it the deadliest month since the invasion began.
Yet despite this devastating attrition, the massive casualties have neither provoked significant public backlash within Russia nor discouraged new recruits from signing up. Moscow’s strategy of throwing wave after wave of troops against Ukrainian defenses has proven as deadly as it is coldly effective, enabling recent Russian advances in the east.
Desperation and Delusions Drive Recruitment Amid Apathy
Russia’s ability to replenish its ranks by up to 30,000 fresh recruits monthly—roughly equal to its battlefield losses—is driven by a mix of financial desperation and nationalistic delusions. Military salaries have soared to unprecedented levels, with new enlistees from impoverished regions receiving signup bonuses of nearly £24,000 on top of monthly pay four times the national average.
“For Russia, the end justifies the means,” a former Russian defense official said anonymously. “Such casualties would have seemed unimaginable before the war. Now, the generals hardly care as long as they meet Putin’s demands.”
Shockingly, Russian society has reacted to the staggering death toll with apparent indifference, contrary to initial Western assumptions that high casualties would halt the war machine. Experts attribute this to the fact that most of the fallen are either volunteers from Russia’s poorest regions or convicts, rather than conscripts from larger cities.
Glorifying Death: Putin’s Propaganda Sells “Heroic Sacrifices”
The Kremlin’s propaganda apparatus has worked tirelessly to glorify the war dead, framing their loss as the ultimate sacrifice for the motherland. Fallen soldiers are posthumously hailed as heroes, their deaths celebrated and memorialized. In a chilling address to the mothers of slain servicemen, Vladimir Putin himself declared, “Your son lived, and his goal has been achieved. And that means he did not leave life in vain.”
“Putin is offering Russians the joy of death,” said Dina Khapaeva, a professor at Georgia Tech. “Instead of a meaningless, hopeless, impoverished life, a Russian is offered the chance to die ‘for the motherland’.”
This perverse cult of death, deeply rooted in Russian history and amplified under Putin’s rule, has further diminished the value of individual life. From the mass purges of the Stalin era to the staggering Covid toll, the glorification of dying for the state has become a source of twisted national pride.
As Russia’s relentless assault on Ukraine continues, fueled by a steady stream of recruits seduced by dreams of glory and financial gain, the true cost of the Kremlin’s callous disregard for human life grows ever more apparent. Yet tragically, even as the death toll mounts, a nation in the grip of desperation and delusion marches on, seemingly numb to the enormity of its losses.
