According to the British government, the Russian leadership is largely shielding residents of large cities from the consequences of the war in Ukraine. A Defense Ministry report said on Sunday that Russia's richest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg, were relatively spared from the "extremely heavy losses." In many eastern regions, the number of soldiers killed is probably more than 30 times as high as in Moscow. Ethnic minorities are particularly affected. For example, in the city of Astrakhan, 75 percent of the fallen belonged to the Tatar and Kazakh populations.
Shielding the wealthier and more influential parts of the population will probably remain a main concern of the Russian military leadership, according to British intelligence services. The Ministry of Defense in London has been publishing daily information on the course of the war since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, citing intelligence information. Moscow accuses London of a disinformation campaign.
