A Russian document, cited in a report by The Guardian, suggested that troops in the Russian border region Kursk, where Ukraine now occupies territory, have been in disarray after Kyiv’s incursion in August.
It reveals concerns over morale were intensified after a soldier killed himself having spent a “prolonged state of depression due to his service in the Russian army”.
Unit commanders have been given orders on how to maintain the “psychological condition” of their men.
They are told to identify troops who are “mentally unprepared to fulfil their duties or prone to deviant behaviour, and organise their reassignment and transfer to military medical facilities”.
Instructions also call for political instruction every day, “aimed at maintaining and raising the political, moral and psychological condition of the personnel”.