By Michael McManus

Russia’s forces are deeply demoralised. The “special military operation”, which was supposed to be over in two weeks, is now into its third year.

According to estimates, Russia has lost over 300,000 dead and 600,000 wounded since the war began. By way of comparison, Russia lost 15,000 men in a decade in Afghanistan.

Adding to this loss of life is a strategic frustration.

The Kremlin’s men have struggled to breakthrough a relatively static frontline, and superb Ukrainian defensive tactics, supplemented by drone technology, have made any attempted offensives expensive.

To try and incentivise Russian forces to fight on the Kremlin has turned to religion, producing a religiously-charged recruitment video which was uploaded to YouTube last year.

The video shows a man in a trench repeating the Lord’s Prayer as he crosses himself before an Orthodox icon as bullets rattle all around. Next, a helmeted soldier in a vehicle begins to pray in Arabic “Bismillah Rahman al Raheem” (in the name of........

© LBC