Estimates from researchers in the U.S. in July suggested that the Kremlin faces eye-watering costs for its payouts to troops injured in the war in Ukraine.

Summary

Russia has cut compensation for troops injured in Ukraine, limiting full payouts of 3 million rubles ($30,000) to those with severe, life-threatening injuries.

Soldiers with minor wounds will now receive reduced payments between 1 million ($10,000) and 100,000 ($1,000) rubles.

This change comes as Russia faces escalating war expenses, with casualty compensation costs estimated at 2.3 trillion rubles ($26 billion) by mid-2024.

High personnel losses have led to recruitment efforts funded by regional social welfare budgets, diverting resources from vulnerable populations, raising concerns about future mobilization efforts and public discontent.

  • @cynarEnglish
    3•1 month ago

    I think it’s more the fact that the Russians likely wouldn’t be selling their “good” nukes. They would be selling the old, run-down ones. They would be a large chance they wouldn’t detonate properly.

    There’s also a lot of debate on how well the rest of Russia’s nuclear arsenal has been maintained. It’s highly specialist work that can’t easily be verified by non-specialists. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of Russian nukes were already non-viable due to corruption affecting maintenance.