Russian Storm-Z soldiers are highly likely being sent back into battle with amputations and unhealed wounds: Western intel

• Members of Russian penal units are highly likely going into battle with unhealed wounds and amputations.
• UK intel says the units, which consist mostly of convicts, are likely to receive poor medical treatment.

Desperate to advance amid a devastating war of attrition and a relatively unstable stalemate, Russia is throwing troops back into battle with unhealed injuries and amputations, Western intelligence suggests.

It is the latest sign that Russia is increasingly relying on mass rather than capability to try and overwhelm Ukrainian defenses.

On Monday, the UK Ministry of Defense reported in an intelligence update that members of the Russian Storm Z units, which are mostly composed of convicts or regular forces being punished for one reason or another, such as drug abuse, "are highly likely being returned to combat duties with unhealed wounds, and even after limb amputations."

"This follows credible reports that members of Storm-Z, Donetsk militias, and Wagner Group have frequently received minimal or no treatment," the update added.

Russia's Storm-Z penal units, which relieved Wagner Group units after they captured Bakhmut earlier this year, are especially likely to receive poor medical treatment because they often lack paperwork needed for treatment at military hospitals, the British defense ministry said, also citing an overburdened military medical system and lack of proper medical attention given on the battlefield.

A UK intel update in July reported that "Russia is almost certainly struggling with a crisis of medical combat provision" and that as many as 50 percent of combat fatalities may have been preventable losses.

In recent weeks, reports have indicated that Russia has increasingly sent troops with injuries and disabilities back to the front lines, relying on them amid troop shortages and Russian President Vladimir Putin's wariness of announcing another draft ahead of the 2024 election.

The situation is so severe that the Russian Ministry of Defense reportedly changed its deployment rules to allow deployment of soldiers with severe injuries back to the front lines.

There, the troops may be forced to fight in brutal "human wave" tactics, a Russian tactic involving throwing soldiers towards Ukrainian defenses in waves in hope of stressing defenses or finding weak points. These abhorrent tactics, which use ill-equipped, poorly trained forces as cannon fodder, have roots in the Soviet tradition: "not a step back."

Such tactics put a strain on Ukrainian forces but are costly for Russia, which US officials said in August had suffered 300,000 casualties since the start of the war.

It remains to be seen if Russia's renewed offensive efforts, like operations around Avdiivka over the past few months and in other sectors of the front, will gain much ground. But with Ukraine's counteroffensive over and its stockpiles running low amid debates in the West about sending more aid, Ukraine may be in for a tough fight to hold the line against Russian attempts to advance.