Kremlin Shields Elite, Sends Poor to Fight, UK Says

Fewer than 1% of Russian government officials have relatives serving in the Ukraine war, according to a new UK intelligence assessment. The report concludes this is not an accident. It states the Kremlin deliberately recruits soldiers from poor and remote communities. At the same time, it protects major cities where people have more political influence. This strategy, the intelligence suggests, minimizes domestic political risk for the government in Moscow. It places the heaviest burden of the war on Russia's most economically desperate citizens.