JRL NEWSWATCH: “Putin’s disposables; Russia is forcing Ukrainian conscripts into battle; Locals are trying to help them escape” – The Economist
“… Russian forces and leaders in the occupied ‘people’s republics’ of Donetsk and Luhansk are said to have mobilised some 100,000 men. Ukrainian officials say 25,000 conscripts from the occupied territories have been killed or are [MIA] …. Russian sources mention about 3,000 dead …. [D]ata suggest … Ukrainians from the separatist republics are dying at a higher rate than [Russian] troops …. By June 2022 more than half of the original members of the Donetsk militia had been killed or wounded [according to British military estimates] …. “
Ukraine accuses Russian and separatist leaders of sending the separatist conscripts into battle first, to draw Ukrainian artillery fire to themselves, thereby causing the Ukrainian military to give away its positions.
Since March, outraged women began confronting separatist officials over their husbands being deployed to the front, with protests escalating as bodies returned. Separatist conscription reportedly was paused, only to now be starting up again.