Yesterday at 20:02
British intelligence has published a review of the Russian independent publication Verstka, which claims that the Russian military command is forcing men mobilized in 2022 to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense.
The review was published on the British Ministry of Defense’s Twitter account X
As noted in the department, although the contracts that Russian soldiers receive have a formal end date, they can reportedly run indefinitely.
Those who refuse to sign them are threatened with being sent into a “meat assault” where the survival rate is only 10-15%, the review said.
The intelligence suggests that Russia’s efforts to force conscripts to sign indefinite contracts are likely partly motivated by a lack of experienced soldiers, as Russia has lost about 860,000 killed and wounded since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
This has significantly reduced the number of Russian soldiers with more than a basic level of training, British analysts say.
In addition, as noted in the review, the Russian authorities are trying to reduce the potential need for further unpopular mobilization at home.
The intelligence service reminds that after the announcement of partial mobilization in 2022, hundreds of thousands of young and educated Russians decided to leave the country. This has had a significant impact on long-term difficulties in the Russian labor market.
Earlier, NATO noted an increase in losses among the Russian occupation forces in Ukraine: over the past year, Russia lost more than 530,000 soldiers in killed and wounded.
British intelligence, based on statistics provided by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, called January 2025 the worst month of losses for Russia after December 2024.
