ロシアの戦死者、若年・貧困地出身・少数民族が大半

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】ロシアによるウクライナ侵攻で戦死したロシア兵の大半が極めて若く、貧困地域出身であることが、メディアなどの調査で明らかになった。少数民族も多いという。（資料写真）
　旧ソ連時代のアフガニスタン侵攻では、１９７９～８９年で約１万５０００人のソ連兵が死亡したが、ウクライナ侵攻での戦死者はすでにこれを上回っているという。
　ロシアはウクライナ侵攻での戦死者数について口を閉ざしている。累計戦死者数は３月２日には４９８人、２５日には１３５１人となったと発表したが、それ以来、新たな情報は公表していない。
　ウクライナ側は、ロシアの戦死者が２万７０００人に上るとしている。西側諸国はこの数字は多すぎると指摘するが、それでもロシア側の発表は大きく上回ると考えている。
　英国防省は今月１５日、ロシアがウクライナに投入した地上戦力の３分の１を失った可能性が高く、約５万人が死亡または負傷したとみられると発表した。
　ロシアのウラジーミル・プーチン大統領は９日の戦勝記念日に、戦死者数には触れなかったものの、被害の重要性を珍しく認めたかのように、戦死者を追悼した。
　プーチン氏は「あらゆる兵士や将官の死は、われわれの悲しみであり、愛するものたちにとっては代わりがない損失である」と述べ、遺族や負傷者の家族への支援策を発表した。
　ロシア語メディア「メディアゾナ」は、公表されている情報のみでも、５月６日までにロシア兵２０９９人の死亡を確認できたと報じた。
　年齢が公表されている死者では２１～２３歳の割合が最も多く、２０歳未満も７４人含まれていた。
　地域別では、戦死者の大半をロシア南部出身者が占めていた。イスラム教徒が多い北カフカス地方のダゲスタン共和国の兵士が最多で１３５人。次いで、シベリア連邦管区のモンゴル系少数民族ブリャート人が住むブリャート共和国出身者が９８人だった。
　首都モスクワや第２の都市サンクトペテルブルクなど、国内の他の地域よりかなり裕福な地域出身者の死亡は、数えるほどしか報告されていない。

■教育格差
　オンラインニュースサイト「リドル・ラシャ」に寄稿するパベル・ルージン氏はＡＦＰに対し、「地上部隊の兵士や将校の大半は小さな町や村の出身だ。このことは社会経済、ひいては教育格差と関係がある」と指摘した。
　「地上部隊の入隊条件は比較的低く、優秀で高学歴な兵士や幹部候補者は航空宇宙軍や空挺（くうてい）軍、海軍など他の軍に配属される」
　ダゲスタン共和国は、長年にわたるイスラム過激派との戦いで、ロシア最貧地域の一つとなっている。地元メディアやメッセージアプリ「テレグラム」は、国の弔問を受け悲しみに暮れる戦死者遺族の写真や映像であふれている。
　ブイナクスキー地区のトップ、カミル・イジイエフ氏は今月６日、戦争で死亡したダゲスタン出身者５人の遺族に勲章を授与する様子を捉えた動画を自身のテレグラムに投稿した。勲章を授与された兵士の妻や母親はイスラム教徒とみられ、スカーフを身に着けていた。
　イジイエフ氏は遺族に「あなた方は、父親が勇敢にも命をささげた子どもたちの母親として生きなければならない」と呼びかけた。
　ルージン氏は、地方や少数民族の多い地域では明らかな反抗の兆候は見られないが、将来も何も反応がないとは限らないと指摘する。「表立った反抗ではなく、徴兵や入隊を避け始めるといった隠れたものになる」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/05/24-14:00）

The bulk of the thousands of Russian soldiers killed in Moscow's onslaught against Ukraine are very young, have poor backgrounds and many are from ethnic minority groups, observers say.
There has been close attention on the numbers of Russian generals and high-ranking officers killed since the invasion launched by President Vladimir Putin on February 24, which has proved far more costly than the Kremlin wished.
But with observers believing the Russian toll could now be exceeding the 15,000 Soviet soldiers killed during the 1979-1989 occupation of Afghanistan, the losses among Russian rank-and-file soldiers have been devastating.
Russia has been remarkably tight-lipped on the number of its soldiers killed, giving a toll of 498 soldiers killed on March 2 and updating this to 1,351 on March 25, with no more information since.
Ukraine puts the toll of Russian soldiers at 27,000 and while most Western sources find this high, they also give figures many times higher than the Russian estimates.
Russia has now likely suffered losses of one third of the ground combat force it committed in February, the British defence ministry said Sunday, indicating that some 50,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded.
In a rare nod to the potential significance of the losses, though without going into any numbers, Putin paid tribute to those killed at Russia's Victory Day commemorations on May 9.
We bow in front of our comrades in arms who died courageously in a just fight, for Russia. The death of every soldier and officer is a cause of grief for us and an irreplaceable loss for loved ones, he said, announcing a package of measures to help the families of those wounded or killed.
- 'Remember them' -
The Russian-language website Mediazona said it had been able to confirm the deaths of 2,099 Russian soldiers in action up to May 6 from open sources alone.
It said that the largest proportion of those killed where age was mentioned was among 21- to 23-year-olds, and 74 had not even reached the age of 20.
A regional breakdown showed most of the dead came from the south of Russia, including the mainly Muslim Northern Caucasus region, as well as central Siberia.
Only a handful of deaths were recorded of soldiers from Moscow and the second-largest city, Saint Petersburg, which are considerably more affluent than the rest of Russia.
The largest numbers of confirmed deaths (135) were of soldiers from the Muslim Northern Caucasus region of Dagestan followed by Buryatia, home to the Mongol Buryat ethnic group, in Siberia (98).
The largest number of soldiers and officers within the ground troops comes from the small towns and villages of Russia. It is related to socio-economic and, consequently, educational stratification, Pavel Luzin, a commentator for the Riddle Russia online news site, told AFP.
The requirements for military service in the ground troops are relatively low, and the best and educated soldiers and future officers go to other branches of the Russian armed forces like air and space forces, strategic rocket forces and navy, he added.
Local media and Telegram channels in Dagestan, which for years battled an Islamist insurgency and is one of Russia's poorest regions, have been filled with images of grieving relatives receiving condolences from state officials.
In one example, Kamil Iziiev, head of the Buynaksky district of Dagestan, on May 6 posted a video on his Telegram channel showing him giving posthumous state awards to families of five inhabitants of Dagestan killed in the war, accepted by wives and mothers wearing the Muslim headscarf.
You have to live on as mothers of children whose fathers heroically gave up their lives. Dear relatives, I ask you to remember that a person is alive so long as they are remembered. So let's remember these guys, he said.
The very first Russian soldier officially confirmed by Moscow to have been killed was Nurmagomed Gadzhimagomedov, a young Dagestani who state media said died while saving fellow troops. He was posthumously decorated by Putin with the Hero of Russia award on March 4.
His death prompted Putin to publicly pay tribute to the role played by non-Russian ethnic groups in Moscow's assault, saying he was proud of being part of this world, this powerful, strong and multinational people of Russia.
- 'Hidden resistance' -
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan sparked a national trauma ?- chronicled in Nobel prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich's harrowing oral history Boys in Zinc, named after the lining of the coffins in which the young soldiers came back ?- and contributed to the collapse of the USSR.
The draconian censorship measures imposed by Moscow in the Ukraine conflict ?- which mean that what the Kremlin terms a special military operation cannot even be called a war in Russia ?- have kept dissent to a minimum, with few daring to express alarm over the losses.
A rare voice has been that of Natalia Poklonskaya, a former prosecutor in the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea who became a Russian MP and Russian official after the annexation.
Taking issue with the use of the letter 'Z' by the Russian authorities as a propaganda image, she said it symbolised a tragedy for both Russia and Ukraine. Why? Because Russian soldiers are being killed.
Luzin said the lack of open signs of protest in provincial Russia and ethnic minority regions over the losses did not mean that there would be no reaction in the future.
But their reaction will not be an open resistance but a hidden one -- they will start to avoid conscription and contract military service, he said.