An opinion piece in Foreign Policy magazine, citing Russian military bloggers, claims the average life expectancy of a newly mobilized Russian soldier, from arrival at training to death on the battlefield, is between 10 days and three weeks. The piece further alleges that once soldiers are sent to the front line itself, their life expectancy can shrink to as little as 20 to 35 minutes, according to a report by Asaf Rozentzweig (N12).
An opinion piece in the U.S. magazine Foreign Policy, cited by journalist Asaf Rozentzweig (N12) on Saturday evening, quotes Russian military bloggers claiming that the average life expectancy of a newly mobilized Russian soldier — from arrival at training to death on the battlefield — is between 10 days and three weeks. The article further alleges that once soldiers are sent to the front line itself, their life expectancy can shrink to as little as 20 to 35 minutes. Rozentzweig, who covers the Ukraine war for N12, noted the reference without additional verification. The claims are based on Russian milblogger sources whose reliability cannot be independently confirmed from this report alone. The figures, if accurate, would underscore the extreme attrition Russia has sustained in its invasion of Ukraine — a conflict NATO chief Mark Rutte recently described as costing Russia 30,000–35,000 troops killed per month, as The Zioneer reported. The dispatch body remains thin as only a single unverified secondhand account of the Foreign Policy column is available.
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Source and signal
A single-sourced dispatch is never rated Confirmed or Strong. Its Signal strengthens only when a second, independent source corroborates it.
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