Russian commanders’ disregard for their troops has been a hallmark of the all-out war in Ukraine, with infantry deployed in “meatgrinder” operations with practically no chance of survival. And yet for Russian servicemen, death might be a better option than the contemptuous treatment doled out to many of the wounded.
The indifference of the Russian state not only worsens the condition of those harmed in its war of aggression but also imposes a huge and long-lasting burden on the national budget while reducing the labor force of a country in serious demographic decline.
Not all the wounded receive medical assistance, the quality of care is low, and hospitals are focused on returning soldiers to the front, whether they are fully recovered or not.
And the scale of Russian casualties is immense. Ukraine’s General Staff said on June 12 that Russia has suffered more than a million losses since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, with British military intelligence saying 750,000 of those are wounded and unfit for combat and 250,000 dead. The wounded “continue to strain the Russian military medical system…causing significant logistic problems and result in a shortage of qualified military medical personnel.”
Soldiers are not trained in first aid so many of their comrades die before receiving treatment, according to a military doctor interviewed by the Transformer Telegram channel. The army medical system was virtually destroyed when Anatoly Serdyukov was minister of defense, between 2007 and 2012, and the sick don’t have enough beds, doctors, medicines or even sheets, he said.
Even pro-war bloggers write regularly that injured soldiers have been left in trenches for weeks awaiting evacuation. The Verstka news website echoed this, citing an official Ministry of Defense report which said more than 5% of soldiers who could have been saved instead died without medical care.
Most injuries are shrapnel and blast wounds, according to official data, and the optimum window for qualified medical treatment is one–two hours, which is hardly ever achieved.
And if a wounded soldier survives and recovers, his problems are often just beginning. Last year, Gennadiy Krasnikov, head of the Russian Academy of Sciences, boasted 98% of wounded Russian troops returned to the battlefield. He attributed this to the achievements of Russian medicine, but the data showed soldiers who were not fully fit being sent back to fight.
Official figures show 152,500 Russians received prosthetic limbs last year, a 53% rise from 2023. But Verstka reported that, in addition, many were waiting for an artificial limb.
But loss of a limb is not always enough to get a discharge from frontline service. Many of those unfit for duty are mobilized and assigned to assault units without proper medical examination and treatment. Some are used to create “disabled” units alongside others with injuries, including broken bones, missing fingers, damaged internal organs, untreated shrapnel wounds, and prostheses, who must nevertheless fight.
Even ardent supporters of the war write that they have been approached by soldiers diagnosed with hepatitis or cancer who have not been discharged from the military.
Soldiers complain they are thrown out of hospitals and forced to fight, and even the seriously wounded are told they are “absolutely fit” for combat. Several said they felt like second-class citizens being sent to certain death, and others returning with them were unable to walk without help.
Popular Z-bloggers have reported rampant corruption and falsification of medical records as soldiers try to avoid a return to the front. Some military personnel have also had to sue hospitals for certificates of injury confirming they are no longer fit for military service.
They are stuck in limbo because they cannot receive compensation for their injuries unless hospitals issue the paperwork. It is also practically impossible to challenge doctors’ decisions.
And those are the lucky ones who managed to get treatment. Russia lacks sufficient hospitals for the wounded, and Moscow’s Ambassador to Pyongyang admitted in February that hundreds of Russian soldiers were undergoing treatment and rehabilitation in North Korea, while others are being cared for in Belarus.
A mutiny by wounded soldiers protesting inadequate medical care occurred in Novosibirsk, according to independent Russian media cited by the UK Ministry of Defense. The soldiers, who refused to return to the front without proper treatment, broke windows and smashed up barracks.
The survival rate of soldiers at the front in Ukraine is much lower than in Afghanistan or in the Chechen war, according to the doctor interviewed by Transformer, and the sheer numbers are far higher.
He said every patient he has treated regrets going to war against Ukraine. The rest of Russia has yet to catch up.
Kseniya Kirillova is an analyst focused on Russian society, mentality, propaganda, and foreign policy. The author of numerous articles for CEPA and the Jamestown Foundation, she has also written for the Atlantic Council, Stratfor, and others.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
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