Ethnic Russian servicemembers from cities make up a disproportionately small share compared to non-urban populations among ethnic minorities, allowing Russian leadership to “tolerate consistently high losses as long as it does not negatively affect public or elite support for the war.”
This was reported by the UK Ministry of Defence intelligence on social media platform X on Tuesday.
“Although Russia has consistently suffered high losses since the start of its illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including likely over 400,000 killed and wounded in both 2025 and 2024, urban ethnic Russians continue to make up a disproportionately small share of servicemembers and, consequently, casualties compared to the rest of the population,” the report states.
According to the independent Russian media outlet Proekt, cited by UK intelligence, less than 1% of Russian government officials have relatives who participated in the illegal invasion.
“By focusing recruitment disproportionately in poorer regions, often predominantly inhabited by ethnic minorities, the Russian state apparatus better leverages financial incentives while limiting the impact on urban parts of the Russian population that have higher political activity,” the UK intelligence report emphasizes.
“President Putin and the Russian top leadership are almost certainly willing to tolerate consistently high losses, provided this does not negatively affect public or elite support for the war and these losses can be replaced,” military experts conclude.
