THE UKRAINE WAR'S CRIMINAL VETERANS
Returning Russian veterans of the war in Ukraine have murdered a confirmed 274 people since February 24, 2022, according to an investigation by the Russian independent news outlet Verstka. Veterans have killed a further 277 people due to accidents, neglect, or severe bodily harm, and have severely injured or mutilated another 465, bringing the known number of casualties of veteran violence to over 1,000. Former prisoners who enlisted in the Russian military in exchange for shortened sentences committed over half of the reported crimes. The majority of the perpetrators were intoxicated at the time of the crime.
Russia's justice, meanwhile, has largely turned a blind eye to these infractions. Verstka found that most of the prosecuted veterans received shortened sentences, and many of the cases were dropped altogether. The murder rate for veterans of the war in Ukraine is more than 18 times higher than for other groups, and the Russian government has done little to prevent or counter this trend. (Verstka, December 9, 2025)
RUSSIA'S UNGUIDED HYBRID WAR
Russian hybrid operations against Europe have escalated significantly between 2021 and 2025. Recent sabotage operations include attacks on rail lines, arson, and extensive drone incursions near military bases, airports, energy infrastructure, and other critical infrastructure. Russia increasingly relies on proxies and hired criminals to conduct hybrid operations, because Europe has expelled a large number of Russian spies in recent years. This, however, has had the combined effect of making it harder for European intelligence to pin acts of sabotage on the Russian government, and harder for the Russian government to control the precision of attacks.
The larger pattern, however, is clear. European analysts see Russia's expanding activities as concerted strategic escalation, not just tactical opportunism. Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the chairman of NATO's Military Committee, has said that the Alliance is considering stronger responses to Russian hybrid operations, including possible preemptive strikes. But many in Europe are still expressing concern about possibly further inflaming tensions with Russia by reacting. (Financial Times, December 9, 2025)
NO LOVE LOST IN RUSSIA
The Russian Federation now has one of the highest divorce rates in the world, worsening the country's long-running demographic decline in the process. "The percentage of marriages in the Russian Federation that end in divorce is approaching 80 percent, according to Moscow experts, a figure that puts that country third among the states of the world and is sparking a debate on what if anything can be done to reverse it," details Paul Goble in his Window on Eurasia blog. Citing reporting by Nakanune, Goble notes that measures designed to discourage legal separation, such as psychological counseling, have not helped reverse the trend "because they often can do little to solve either the personal or social problems that have led to the breakdown of marriages – and... unless those are addressed, the number of divorces will likely increase and hence the number of children born continue to fall." (Window on Eurasia, December 7, 2025)
MI6 WARNS THE WEST
Blaise Metreweli, the UK's new Chief of the Secret Intelligence, better known as MI6, outlined in her first public speech that Russia represents an "acute threat" to the West. In the mid-December address, she detailed that Russia and other hostile actors seek to sow a "new age of uncertainty," and that Moscow is "export[ing] chaos" through arson and sabotage operations, assassinations, cyber, and drone attacks across Europe. She stressed further that the "new frontline is everywhere." Metreweli urged Britain to rely more on itself as the world becomes increasingly dangerous and to better integrate technology into MI6 tradecraft and field work in a time of heightened disinformation and cyber attacks (New York Times, December 15, 2025)
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