Drunkenness, Negligence Of Commanders, Domestic Conflicts: Main Reasons Why Russian Servicemen Die

• 20.12.2022, 16:46

The causes of non-combat losses in the Russian army are named.

The Russian military during the war against Ukraine died not only in battles with the Ukrainian fighters, they also suffered non-combat losses. There can be many reasons for this, for example, “friendly fire”. The Important Stories publication writes about this in its new material, adding that it is very difficult to find out the real number of Russian losses in this war, since the Russian Ministry of Defense hides this.

Most often, occupiers die from careless handling of weapons. Journalists say that in the sentences they received from the garrisons, the following story mostly repeats: a military man forgot to put the safety on his weapon and accidentally or for fun shot a colleague.

Other reasons are drunkenness, negligence of commanders, low level of training, inability to use military equipment, and domestic conflicts.

“Drinking alcohol while on duty is a major cause of incidents in the armed forces, such as injuries, conflicts, killings, at least in peacetime in areas outside the combat zone,” say military experts from the Conflict Intelligence Team.

The publication also told the story of contract soldier Stanislav Bolkunov, who killed his colleague and went to jail for 10 years. He himself told other military men that “I wanted to relieve tension and found no other way out but to shoot.”

“By the 10th month of the war, the share of Russian losses from friendly fire has exceeded the global conventional norm,” the publication's experts summed up.