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- Units of disabled Russian troops are being sent back to fight, according to a report.
- The Kremlin has changed its rules so troops with serious injuries can be redeployed.
- Russia is experiencing severe troop shortages in Ukraine.
Russia is sending its injured and disabled soldiers back to fight on the front lines amid troop shortages, a report said.
According to Russian independent media outlet iStories, the Russian Ministry of Defense recently changed its rules, enabling it to send soldiers with severe injuries back to fight against Ukraine.
Under the ruling, medical examiners deciding whether to redeploy injured soldiers should consider whether troops have front line experience, and not rule them out on the basis of injuries that "do not have a significant impact on the ability to perform the duties of military service."
As a consequence, units of hundreds of disabled soldiers have been formed without the soldiers having been properly examined by medics or receiving adequate care, families of the soldiers told the outlet.
The publication cited the case of a soldier it named "Mikhail" to shield his real identity.
His wife, "Irina," told iStories that he received a shrapnel wound in Ukraine that injured his leg, but after being assigned to a convalescent unit, he received inadequate care and was then signed off by a medic to fight in Ukraine again.
She said that Mikhail now walks with a cane, and has joined a unit of other disabled and injured soldiers that will be used as an "assault battalion" in Ukraine.
"They in the regiment are already laughing through tears - what kind of assault with sticks and on crutches?"
She said her husband had also lost all of his teeth in Ukraine: "He has five stumps instead of teeth, and you can't take a blender with you there."
When asked how he could eat at the front line, the unit answered: "The stew there is soft," Irina told the outlet.
The outlet cited several cases of soldiers with severe injuries categorized as fit to be returned to active duty by military medics.
Russia has suffered a huge number of casualties in its invasion of Ukraine, with US officials telling The New York Times in August that around 300,000 Russian troops had been killed or injured.
According to Russian independent news outlet Verstka, the number of men under 30 with disabilities rose by 17,000 in Russia in 2022, and is expected to reach record levels in 2023.
Russia reinforced its military in Ukraine by drafting around 300,000 civilians last year, and has recruited thousands of prisoners, who are often used as "cannon fodder" in head-on assaults on Ukrainian positions.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly wary of announcing another military draft, amid continuing steep casualties leading the Kremlin to change deployment rules for the military.