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Russia’s highest mobilization and fatality rates in the war disproportionately affect ethnic minorities, particularly Turkic peoples, which experts warn could eventually lead to internal destabilization.
That’s according to a report titled “Russia increasingly relies on Turkic minorities and marginalized groups to sustain its war efforts” by expert and political adviser Andriy Buzarov, published in Türkiye Today, Ukrinform reports.
“Facing growing challenges on the battlefield — widely recognized both inside and outside Russia — the Kremlin is increasingly trying to compensate for its losses by intensifying mobilization among national minorities across the country,”
— the article states, citing multiple studies and statistical data.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Moscow has deliberately targeted recruitment efforts in remote and economically disadvantaged regions, viewing them as politically safer and more compliant sources of manpower.
Among the 10 regions with the highest wartime losses are the republics of Tuva, Buryatia, Altai, Sakha (Yakutia), and Kalmykia.
Research shows that since February 2022, Buryatia has recorded at least 2,470 deaths — roughly 252 per 100,000 people, almost 18 times higher than in Moscow, where the rate is 9.2.
In 2024, Bashkortostan and Tatarstan also saw some of the highest casualty rates. In small indigenous villages with only a few dozen families, dozens of men were mobilized.
The article also highlights the North Caucasus, a region with a long history of resistance to Russian imperial control. Official figures indicate over 800 deaths in Dagestan and hundreds more in North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Ingushetia. Notably, mass protests against mobilization erupted in Dagestan in 2022.
The report further notes that citizens from Central Asian countries are also being drawn into Russia’s war effort. In just the first half of 2025, more than 2,000 Uzbeks, nearly 1,000 Tajiks, and hundreds of Kazakhs and Kyrgyz reportedly joined the Russian army — some in exchange for citizenship or employment, others under coercion or threat of deportation.
“These recruitment and mobilization mechanisms show how Moscow views non-Russian regions not as partners but as expendable labor sources,”
— Buzarov writes.
Experts warn that rising disproportionate losses among minority populations could spark domestic instability in Russia’s ethnically diverse republics and cause a major reputational blow internationally, as these groups increasingly recognize their exploitation by Moscow’s war machine.
In August last year, Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
