NATO’s top official warned young Russians on Wednesday that they would likely die on the front lines if they enlist in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Secretary General Mark Rutte said the Kremlin was suffering “absolutely staggering” losses in Ukraine, warning that any new recruit stands the risk of being among the more than 30,000 Russian soldiers killed on the battlefield every month.
“You are being sold a raw deal,” Rutte said in remarks directly addressed to young Russians during a visit to Kyiv.
“Men like you who join the fight — you won’t be trained. Equipment they’ll provide you with is substandard,” the NATO chief added.
“There is a very high chance you’ll die or be wounded while you’re out there. And odds are, that if you are wounded, you will be left to suffer in the mud and die,” Rutte said.
To put the numbers in context, the secretary general said Russia is actively losing in a month what the whole Soviet Union lost in the decade of fighting in Afghanistan.
“That’s not abstract,” he said. “That will probably be you.”
Russia has been repeatedly criticized during the more than four years of war of using “meatgrinder tactics” to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses.
The tactic, however, has proven less and less effective as Kyiv quickly adapted to the war and fortified its strategic fortress belt in the Donetsk region, where the Kremlin has struggled to make any significant gains in more than a year.
The meatgrinder tactic effectively cost Russia nearly 35,000 soldiers per month in 2025 alone, according to the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, with similar figures recorded in 2026.
An estimated 1.2 million Russian soldiers have been killed, wounded or gone missing from the beginning of the war through early 2026, the CSIS found.
As casualties continue to mount, the Kremlin — which promises recruits large salaries for enlisting — has increasingly sought the aid of foreign fighters, with Ukrainian intelligence officials warning that Moscow has plans to recruit at least 18,500 soldiers from other countries into the Russian army in 2026.
With Post Wires
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