THE excessive alcohol consumption, and not death in battle, is the cause of many deaths in the ranks of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defense said today Sunday in its regular briefing on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“While Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a non-negligible minority of these casualties are due to non-combat causes,” the British ministry said.

The report cites a recent report by a Russian news network on Telegram that spoke of “extremely high” numbers of incidents, crimes and deaths linked to alcohol consumption in the ranks of the Russian forces.

“However, with heavy drinking prevalent in much of Russian society, drinking of this magnitude has for years been seen as a tacitly accepted part of military life, even in combat operations,” the report underlines.

The British ministry listed other main causes of casualties in the ranks of the Russian army, non-combat casualties, such as poor weapon handling, traffic accidents and hypothermia. Russian commanders are likely aware of widespread alcohol abuse and see it as particularly detrimental to effectiveness on the battlefield, he said.

The ministry has been publishing daily updates since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, based on information gathered by British intelligence. Moscow considers the exhibitions these misinformation.