Several generations of Russians will pay for the war in Ukraine: the terrible consequences have been revealed
Date: 2024-08-06 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: WORLD
An aggressive war against Ukraine will leave Russia with legions of broken people and an empty state treasury, forcing the government to make difficult decisions.
The Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes that the Kremlin needs money not only for the war and countering sanctions, but also for the dead and wounded occupiers. Russia has rarely cared for soldiers, so trying to ensure proper treatment of veterans seems inadequate and unaffordable.
"After nearly two and a half years of grueling war, both Ukraine and Russia have suffered terrible losses and spent hundreds of billions of dollars. Despite this, the conflict is unlikely to end anytime soon, as both sides still believe they have the upper hand. But the price will not be paid only on the battlefield. Even if the fighting ends today, the economic and demographic consequences for Russians will be felt for generations," the article says.
The authors of the article believe that Russia is neither logistically, financially nor culturally prepared for the enormous burden it will face.
Exorbitant payments to occupiers
Moscow must provide for the families of fallen invaders and wounded soldiers who will no longer be able to work or will need assistance for the rest of their lives. Currently, the family of a fallen occupier receives about 14 million rubles.
If the Russian army lost 400 thousand soldiers, more than 100 thousand of whom died, then one-time payments will amount to 900 billion rubles for the wounded and at least 1.4 trillion for the families of the deceased, that is, a total of 2.3 trillion rubles. This is about 6% of the state budget for 2024, and in the future the amount will only grow.
Medical care
The authors of the article write that the annual cost of treating one soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder will be about 15 thousand dollars. If one million invaders are fighting against Ukraine, then half of them may get PTSD, the treatment of which will require more than 660 billion rubles per year.
Russia has significant problems with the capacity of hospitals. Since 2012, the number of medical institutions has decreased by about 20%, and there are only 10 hospitals for veterans in the country. In addition, the only hospital that specializes in psychological rehabilitation has only 32 beds. This could lead to the collapse of the country's medical system.
Lack of money and the prejudice that the disorder does not require treatment will result in a large number of traumatized veterans not receiving proper mental health care. This could lead to high unemployment and problems with reintegration into society.
Alcoholism and drug addiction
In November 1989, up to 60% of Soviet veterans of the war in Afghanistan suffered from alcoholism or drug addiction, and in the mid-2000s, about 100,000 veterans of the Chechen wars were in prison.
In Russia, it is believed that frank and open conversations about the war, which are part of the process of working with trauma, undermine trust in the army. Therefore, if Moscow has problems with money, mental health programs may be on the verge of collapse.
According to the authors of the article, all these problems will become the main budget item in the coming decades, risking turning into a political vulnerability for the Kremlin. "In the long term, increased spending combined with unstable revenues will force the Russian state to make difficult decisions," they add.
