Russian soldier murder rate soars 900% on return from Ukraine war

submitted by MicroWave edited

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine…

Up to 113 active Russian servicemen were convicted in 2023 - a near 900 per cent increase on just 13 in 2022

The number of Russian soldiers committing murder after returning home from the frontline have soared over the past few years amid “chronic mental health” issues linked to serving on the battlefield.

Data from Moscow’s judicial department showed that 113 active servicemen were convicted in 2023 - representing a near 900 per cent increase on just 13 convictions in 2022.

The UK Ministry of Defence said the high number of homicides was likely due to “war-related chronic mental health issues” and the release of thousands of ex-convictspardoned for their participation in the war.

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47 Comments

JohnDClay

They're also recruiting from prisons and promising freedom afterwards, right? That probably doesn't help.

Deestan

Where's the harm in taking violent criminals, giving them a year of practice doing war crimes, traumatize them up a bit, and then releasing them into civilized society?

ZapBeebz_

See, it's all planned, because they then arrest the criminals and ship them right back to the front! So efficient!

slaacaa

Circular economy ♻️

RamblingPanda

And they even had their training beforehand. Murder, conviction, battlefield. What would that take, half a week?

Telodzrum

See? This is why the Sardukar were retired to compounds.

UnderpantsWeevil

The horror of the Sardukar was in how a state leader could transform dissidents and derelicts (the product of the emperor's own repugnant domestic policies) into a tool of command and control.

The horror of the Freman was in how a state leader could transform the desire for liberty and sovereignty into an empire-spanning blood drenched jihad.

Apply this to Russia/Ukraine (or Israel/Palestine or Ethiopia/Tigrey or North/South Sudan) and you see a host of disturbing parallels.

The longer and deeper the trauma of these conflicts, the more local people abandon their humanity in pursuit of victory.

Avid Amoeba

I thought that's for Wagner only.

RozhkiNozhki

No, it's common practice now, not just for those who has been imprisoned for years but for fresh convicts too - they are offered draft instead of imprisonment right after conviction.

humbletightband

Even before conviction!

skillissuer

after wagner was dismantled in all but name (prigozhin was taken out eight months ago, can you believe that? time flies) the same deal was offered by russian army in form of Storm-Z battalions (it's a real name, i couldn't make it up if i tried). another low-quality type of units are BARS which is kinda, sorta like territorial defense units but it seems to me that they're mostly football ultras and other menace that society at large wouldn't miss

Flying Squid

Hardened criminals are freely walking around Moscow, but that's okay because Ukraine is apparently the place of origin of the Russian people.

Same reason why Mussolini's invasion of Greece was totally justified. Aeneas was the progenitor of the Roman people? I guess Greece is the original homeland of Italians.

PugJesus

UM AKTUALLY MOMENT:

Aeneas was Anatolian, so the rumble should've happened with Turkiye.

sparkle

Ukraine is the rightful successor to the Kyjivan Rus' and the Soviet Union, therefore they should get the UN permanent member seat and *all* of the former USSR's belongings, including Moscow. Do I get a medal now?

UnderpantsWeevil

This is fine, but only if we stop pretending the UK is an independent country and just fold it back in with the US

TransplantedSconie

Who would have thought the murders you sent to commit war crimes in Ukraine would come back missing pieces but still willing to commit war crimes in your home cities.

Plopp

Well, I don't think they were planning for them to come back at all.

mindlight

Pfffft.... Yet another sign of the Russian economy booming!

Everythingispenguins

The murder economy

winky9827b

It's that capitalist policy of murders and acquisitions.

slaacaa , edited

The sanctions are not working! 😡

(also, please stop the sanctions 🥺)

UnderpantsWeevil

Russia is increasingly a resource tank for the Chinese economy. So long as the Chinese economy remains hungry for natural resources, Russia will be fine.

MonkderDritte

It takes 3 generations for a population to recuperate from the psychological and sociological consequences of a war.

TokenBoomer

Does that recuperation compound exponentially? Asking for an American friend.

MonkderDritte

Was "recuperation" wrong? English is not my first language.

fuckingkangaroos

You're right, the other poster is a Kremlin shill trying to distract from the Kremlin's barbaric war with "whataboutism"

TokenBoomer

It’s correct. But, I’m an American, and still recuperating from all the trauma. Sometimes, when things get quiet, I sit and think of all the deaths from wars committed for my benefit, and it makes me sad. 😞

DaddleDew

Who would have known that giving your convicted murderers guns and letting them loose on a battlefield with zero accountability for the war crimes they commit and then release the survivors in your cities with zero transition whatsoever isn't an effective way to rehabilitate them?

YeetPics

Turns out when you send conscripted criminals to war you get back *tactically trained war criminals*.

AutoTL;DR

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The number of Russian soldiers committing murder after returning home from the frontline have soared over the past few years amid “chronic mental health” issues linked to serving on the battlefield.

The UK Ministry of Defence said the high number of homicides was likely due to “war-related chronic mental health issues” and the release of thousands of ex-convicts pardoned for their participation in the war.

“The high numbers of homicides by serving and veteran Russian soldiers are likely in part due to enduring war-related chronic poor mental health issues,” the MoD said.

When the mass recruitment of Russian prisoners started in the summer of 2022 it was led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, once the head of the Wagner private military group.

Prisoners - who serve in the “Storm-Z” unit - were offered a clean record, full pardon and allowed to go home after six months on the battlefield.

The Russian military took over the scheme in February 2023 and clamped down on the practice, removing the right to a pardon and ensuring prisoners fought to the end of the war.


The original article contains 394 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 55%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

riodoro1

They are fucking animals when out there. Killing and raping anything they want to just for shits. No wonder some of that stays inside of their underdeveloped brains after.

UnderpantsWeevil

Not unique to Russia. Armed forces folks the world over are groomed to act like this.

Check out the surging rate of domestic abuse in Israel following Oct 7th.

And sexual assault in the US military (particularly the "elite" JSOC units) climbs with every new surge in deployment abroad.

Drug use, PTSD, high rates of bankruptcy and divorce and homelessness, all common to the military occupation.

Just another reason why War Is Bad.

eran_morad

russia is completely fucked and I think the world might be better off that way.

AllNewTypeFace

unfortunately when a giant drops dead, its falling corpse can still do a lot of damage

DdCno1

That's a neat phrase. Did you come up with it?

Everythingispenguins

Their dad was a giant, it was traumatic, they don't like talking about it.

humbletightband

That's the perspective for the after-Putin era. It won't affect his reign

circuscritic , edited

Power vacuums and breakaway republics forming from the decaying corpse of an empire with the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons is probably not going to leave the world better off.

TransplantedSconie

I guarantee that in the event of a Russian implosion the US and China will swoop in to secure nuclear assets. China especially because they want Russian land for mining.

Cosmicomical

Ah sure, like last time

TransplantedSconie

This is completely different scenario from the 90s.

China wants a nice hunk of Siberia. What better way to achieve that goal than "securing WMDs"?

circuscritic , edited

This isn't a movie where there is a definitive implosion moment when foreign powers will able to just waltz in and "secure" their mass stockpile of nuclear weapons, or all of their ICBM silos.

This is a massive country with a distributed nuclear triad who's capabilities are meant to withstand a first strike, and still be able to absorb a few more rounds of nuclear armageddon.

Guess again on how that scenario of foreign powers invading to capture their nuclear weapons would unfold.

anlumo

Same will happen to IDF soldiers, not sure if Israel is prepared for that.

Shampiss

Israeli soldiers are not recruited from prisons like in Russia

Count042

Look up hilltop youth.

AmosBurton

It never happened before. Why now?

anlumo

You're just learning about mental health problems of veterans?

nutsack

He means the IDF have been doing this for a long time