On a percentage basis, Russia sent as many troops to Ukraine as the Soviet Union did in its ten-year war in Afghanistan, historian Mark Galeotti explains in his post. Twitter.

Galeotti notes that from 1979 to 1989, about a million Soviet soldiers served in Afghanistan, which was equal to 0.35% of the population of the USSR at the time. As for the war started by Vladimir Putin last year, about 500,000 Russian troops were sent to Ukraine, which is about 0.35% of Russia’s population today.

The historian points out that these figures represent not only soldiers directly involved in the fighting on the front lines, but also military doctors or engineers, and Galeotti adds that they show the scale of the war for Russia and the problems it will create for Russian society.

Military analyst Dara Massicot of the RAND Corporation echoed this earlier in June, noting that the Russian military and society will face a “Ukraine syndrome” brought home by soldiers traumatized by the horrors of war.

Masikot noted that just as there was a so-called “Afghan syndrome” or “Chechen syndrome” to describe veterans with severe post-traumatic stress disorder who had great difficulty adjusting to civilian life, it is only a matter of time before a “Ukrainian syndrome” appears in Russia.

On May 23 last year, the Ministry of Defense of Great Britain noted that the number of soldiers lost by the Russian army in the first days of the war in Ukraine was close to the loss of the Soviet Union in the 9 years of the war in Afghanistan, considering that the war waged by the USSR last year was more of a guerrilla war against the insurgents.

Russia is looking for more people for Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine

The high number of casualties recorded by the invasion force prompted Moscow authorities to take additional measures to expand the recruitment pool for Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation”, Europe’s biggest military conflict since the end of World War II.

Recently, the Moscow parliament rejected a legislative proposal to raise the age of conscription for military service in Russia from 18 to 21. But another norm of the proposal to raise the maximum age from 27 to 30 years was accepted.

“It was decided to leave the lower limit at the level of 18, because this is exactly the age when many boys want to go to serve,” explained MP Andriy Kartapalov, the initiator of the legislative project and the chairman of the defense committee of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, last Friday.

Russian law theoretically prohibits conscripts from being sent to a conflict zone, but this provision is not always followed after President Vladimir Putin ordered a “partial” mobilization last September.

The chaotic manner in which the mobilization process took place has sparked increasingly rare public protests in the country under Vladimir Putin and caused a real exodus of young men from Russia.

In addition, last year Russia announced a plan to increase the number of professional troops and personnel by more than 30 percent to 1.5 million military personnel.

In April, Russia passed a law allowing registration documents to be submitted electronically, making it even more difficult to avoid military service.

Last Tuesday, the Russian parliament increased by five years the minimum age at which men who have completed military service can be called up for military service. The new age of conscription of Russian men for war is 55 years for lower ranks and 70 years for senior officers.

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