Russian volunteers sent on 'one-way mission' as Putin's country faces losses in Ukraine

Exclusive:

Ukrainian military officials believe 36,000 Russian soldiers died in the war, leaving Moscow desperate. New recruits are believed to have been lured on short-term contracts

Russia suffered huge losses during the invasion of Ukraine (

Image: AFP via Getty Images

Russia sends a disparate “suicide battalion” of former police, sailors, reservists and volunteers in the bloody invasion of Ukraine.

The hastily recruited mob replaces a section of the Moscow invasion force almost entirely massacred at the start of the war.

Of 648 soldiers of the 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade, 645 were killed.

Only three men returned home, two injured, after the failed operation.

The recruits are believed to have been lured into short-term contracts.

A western source told the Daily Mirror: "It looks more like a suicide battalion. They are likely to be sent into the fierce battle in the east.

Ukrainian military officials believe 36,000 Russian soldiers died in the war, leaving Moscow desperate.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (

Picture:

SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images)

Bruce Jones, a Russian military expert, said, "For a lot of volunteers, that means a one-way ticket. Recruiters and trainers know that."

He said the volunteers would be "desperate for money, barely fit and ill-equipped".

This comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin's vain congratulations to the troops after the capture of Lysychansk, marking Moscow's dominance over the Luhansk region. Only Donetsk remains while the remaining Donbass region is under Russian eyes.

But an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky swore, "This is their last victory on Ukrainian territory."