British intelligence reports up to 200,000 Russia's casualties in Ukraine

KYIV. April 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Russia’s casualties since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine amount to up to 200,000 people, and a significant minority if these have been due to non-combat caused, primarily alcohol abuse, according to a defense intelligence report from the UK Department of Defense on Twitter.

“While Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a significant minority of these have been due to non-combat causes. On March 27, 2023, a Russian Telegram news channel reported these have been ‘extremely high’ numbers of incidents, crimes and deaths linked to alcohol consumption amongst the deployed Russian forces,” the intelligence said on Twitter on Sunday.

It clarifies that other major causes of non-combat casualties are likely to include poor weapons handling drills, road traffic accidents, and climatic injuries such as hypothermia.

At the same time, Russian commanders probably believe that the widespread of alcohol abuse is particularly detrimental to the effectiveness of combat operations.

“However, with heavy drinking pervasive across much of Russian society, it has long been seen as a tacitly accepted part of military life, even on combat operations,” the intelligence said.