Every second person lost a limb: number of disabled people in russia jumped to record high since first Chechen war
The war with Ukraine, which has been going on for the third year, in addition to the tens of thousands killed, "gave" russia an "army" of disabled people, comparable in number to the male population of a small regional center.
According to the results of 2023, the number of disability pension recipients in the russian federation increased by 91,700 people, according to the data of the Social Fund of russia (formerly the Pension Fund), published in the Rosstat system.
The total number of disabled pensioners - 2.225 million people - reached a 7-year high (in 2016 they were 2.267 million), and the growth rate of their number became a record since 1997. Then veterans of the First Chechen War returned en masse to civilian life, and the number of disability pension recipients increased by 271,000 for a year.
For almost two decades, the number of disabled pensioners in russia has been steadily decreasing: in 2001 it was 4.822 million people, in 2005 - 4.323 million, in 2010 - 2.703 million, in 2015 - 2.314 million, in 2019 - 2.043 million (the minimum for the entire modern history of the country). Since the beginning of the 2020s, against the background of the pandemic, the number of disabled people in the pension system began to slowly grow again, and after the invasion of Ukraine, the process accelerated: in two years, the number of recipients of such pensions increased by almost 100,000 more - a number that can be compared with the male population such cities as Pskov or Nakhodka.
By sending the regular army, 300,000 mobilized persons, tens of thousands of prisoners and contract soldiers to war, vladimir putin, according to Pentagon estimates, lost about 300,000 people by the beginning of 2024. To the 60,000 killed, four times more wounded were added - about 240,000. At the same time, every second person who was seriously injured lost a limb, a senior official of the russian government told The New York Times.