A report has found the average Russian conscript survived just four and half months at the front line – with one in five dying within just two months.

Last year Vladimir Putin signed a decree to initiate a ‘partial military mobilisation’, drafting some 300,000 Russian citizens and shipping them off to fight in Ukraine to bolster his crumbling military force. 

Unsurprisingly, conscripts began reporting horror stories from the front line within a matter of weeks, with freshly drafted units facing systemic issues that led to an eye-watering attrition rate. 

New arrivals were sent charging into battle with shoddy equipment and limited ammunition by reckless commanders and were subsequently torn up by better trained and equipped Ukrainian defenders. 

Those who managed to survive beyond their initial deployment found the promises of leave never materialised, and instead faced the prospect of near-certain death on the front line, or being tortured or killed for desertion. 

Now, a research paper authored by Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) and Russian independent outlet Important Stories, has revealed the harrowing impact of the war on Russian conscripts.

Analysing death rates, in areas where the fighting was most intense, the period between mobilisation and death on the frontlines was measured in days, not weeks.

CIT analysts pointed to autumn 2022 and spring 2023 – characterised by intense fighting in and around Bakhmut in Donetsk and Svatove-Kreminna in Luhansk – as the bloodiest time of the conflict in which conscripts were killed at an incredible rate.

‘The most intense periods in terms of losses are the fall of 2022 and the spring of 2023, they contribute significantly to the average life expectancy of those mobilised at the front,’ CIT explains.

‘Some already fell into a meat grinder in the area of ​​​​Svatove and Kreminna in the autumn, where [the Russian military leadership] urgently needed to close the breakthrough [of the Ukrainian Armed Forces]. 

‘At the beginning, [mobilised troops] filled holes in order to urgently prevent the collapse of the front, to saturate it with manpower. 

‘The record from military summons to grave is just a few days.’ 

The age range of conscripts killed in action further illustrates the toll mobilisation took on Russian society – particularly in poorer minority regions where the number of call ups was disproportionately high.

One victim named Anton Getman, from Russia’s southern Rostov region close to the Ukrainian border, was killed in November 2022 just weeks into his mobilisation aged just 19. 

One in ten conscripts killed in Ukraine were aged under 25, according to the report.  

Meanwhile, Nikolai Isakov, a former major who was recalled to fight after war broke out, was killed eight months after being mobilised aged 62.

CIT analysts went on to explain how the Russian army’s unstructured combat system contributes to such high attrition rates and reduces the effectiveness of those who do survive.

‘At the very beginning they were told: ”You will serve for six months and go home, no one will send you to the front line” – and they thought: ”Now we’ll quickly go, get medals, money and come back.”

‘Now many conscripts complain that they have been serving for 11 months and have never been home. 

‘Once mobilisation begins, they can no longer refuse to participate [in the war] with impunity, and we are seeing a growing level of criminal prosecution for unauthorised abandonment of a unit. 

‘Why aren’t they sent on vacation? Because [commanders] are afraid that if you send 100 people on vacation, only half will return.’ 

The report comes as Ukrainian forces mounted coordinated assaults on several villages in the eastern Donetsk region and began heavily shelling the city of Bakhmut, a Russian-installed official in the region said Friday.

The industrial territory has suffered the brunt of fighting since Russia’s offensive and the battle for Bakhmut is the longest and one of the bloodiest of the conflict.

‘Over the past 24 hours in the Krasnolimansk direction, the enemy took a number of actions and conducted combat reconnaissance in several directions at once,’ Denis Pushilin said on social media.

He listed several villages in the north of Donetsk near the city of Lyman, which is under Ukrainian control, and claimed the assaults were suppressed by Russian forces.

Bakhmut was captured by Russian forces in May after months of brutal fighting but Ukrainian forces immediately began pushing back around its flanks and have recaptured several destroyed villages.

‘The situation in [Bakhmut] remains hot, [the city] itself is under chaotic shelling,’ Pushilin said in the video statement on social media.

Pushilin also said Ukrainian forces are massing assault battalions north of the town that once had an estimated population of 70,000 people.

Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive against heavily entrenched Russian positions in June but progress has been slow.

Survivors of Morocco’s deadliest earthquake in sixty years have told of the horror of living alongside dead bodies still submerged under collapsed homes, which four days on from the disaster are beginning to rot.

Aziz, a villager from Ijoukak, 10 miles from the quake’s epicentre, said: ‘Until now we have found no survivors, only the dead buried under the rubble… the smell of corpses is very, very strong. We still have no electricity and no water.’ 

The death toll has now surpassed 2,800 and is expected to rise even further, as hopes fade of bringing out those still trapped under piles of debris following Friday’s 6.8-magnitude quake.

Desperate villagers still waiting for aid in the worst-hit regions of the Atlas mountains reported being left to search for survivors themselves, digging with their bare hands to get the bodies of their neighbours and loved ones out of the rubble.

After the fourth night sleeping outside for many Moroccans on Monday – either in makeshift tents or under the stars in rural areas and on the streets of Marrakech – many are waking up today still waiting for help.

Because homes in quake-hit villages of the High Atlas mountains are typically made of mud bricks, stone and clay, it is usually harder for people to survive in them than in modern buildings destroyed by quakes. 

‘When all of that collapses, you don’t have much chance of surviving, because there are no air pockets,’ Rescuers Without Borders’ founder, Arnaud Fraisse, said. 

‘People are generally suffocated by the dust.’

Abdelqader Tarfay, the general secretary of Morocco’s National Health Union, said that the greatest challenge for medics and rescue teams is still to get trapped people out.

‘Then they have to work on removing the remaining corpses under the rubble so that they do not rot,’ he told Al Jazeera.

Homes, mosques and schools have been decimated, with a religious teacher in the village of Tafeghaghte saying that 22 of his students had been killed.

Some residents in the worst-hit mountain regions criticised the government’s relief efforts, saying that while other communities had received assistance they have had to fend for themselves.

Said Hartattouch said it was understandable why some communities were receiving state assistance while others were not, due to the enormity of the destruction that has killed more than 2,800 people.

Remote hamlets in the areas around Ijoukak are still not accessible, the Guardian reports, with ‘huge boulders blocking the roads’. 

‘The problem for Atlas Mountains is that it is big… ‘It’s not possible to help everyone’.

The 34-year-old was at work in Marrakech when the 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck.

The moment the earth began to shake, he rushed to his family’s village more than 60 miles away in the High Atlas Mountains, anxious to get to his mother and two sisters.

When he arrived several hours later, his childhood home lay in ruins.

Speaking outside the rubble of the earth-and-straw house, Hartattouch said that in the days following the quake he had sometimes felt like he was in a horrible dream.

‘But then you wake up the day after and you find reality,’ he said.

While Hartattouch’s mother and sisters survived, fifteen other people from the close community of about 100 people perished.

Among them was his uncle, who was buried by a collapsing wall after he fled his home, and a close family friend who lived next door.

The village of Tinmel lies in a state of devastation. The homes have been crushed and the historic 12th-century mosque that sits at the end of the village and attracted tourists from around the world is now a ruin.

Recounting his return to the village, delayed due to a road blocked by a landslide, Hartattouch described a scramble inside his destroyed family home to gather blankets and his mother’s insulin.

With nowhere to go, the villagers have slept out in the open since the earthquake struck on Friday. 

Residents say the village has received little government help and instead relied on charitable donations. A mother of a 15-day-old baby boy said the child needed milk formula and medicine.

There is an urgent need for tents to protect the people from the dropping temperatures at night.

‘It is the beginning of the cold weather, the first day was very tough,’ Hartattouch said.

Airshow crash horror: Moment pilot and passenger are killed as plane spins into the ground in front of horrified spectators in Hungary

• The small propeller-driven aircraft was flying at the Börgönd air on Sunday
• Video shows it perform a rotation movement before crashing into the ground 

By Chris Jewers

Published: 02:56 EDT, 11 September 2023 | Updated: 04:14 EDT, 11 September 2023

Two Irish tourists, aged 59 and 60, are run over and killed on ‘one of the most dangerous roads in Rome’: Victims were ‘thrown several yards by the impact’

• Two victims were walking in the southern outskirts of Rome when they were hit 

By Rachael Bunyan

Updated: 12:45 EDT, 7 September 2023

Five young hotel workers have died after a steel lift cable snapped at a Bali resort and plunged them 100 metres down a steep embankment.

The two men and three women were working in the housekeeping department at Ayuterra Resort in the Ubud district when they got into an Instagram-famous glass lift, which runs on a track up a 35-degree slope, at 1pm on Friday. 

The workers were identified as Ni Luh Superningsih, 20, Kadek Hardiyanti, 24, Kadek Yanti Pradewi, 19, Sang Putu Bayu Adi Krisna, 19, and Wayan Aries Setiawan, 23. 

Outrage has erupted, with the families paid just over $4,000 in compensation from their employers, on the condition they will not launch legal action against the resort. 

According to local media, families have been given between IDR158.2m ($16,308) and IDR166.1m ($17,122) from social security program BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, and about IDR 40m ($4112) from the resort owners to cover cremation rituals and on compassionate grounds.

However, the added support from Ayuterra Resort means families would not be able to launch legal action against the company. 

The uncle of Mr Hardiyanti, Nyoman Suarila told local publication Kumparan, that he accepted the terms.

‘Even if we sue, our children will not return,’ he said.

‘But we believe in karma. If the company is wrong, then it will get it. That’s our principle.

‘If the incident that caused my nephew’s death was the fault of a technician or something, it must be processed according to applicable law.’

Two of the staff died at the scene while the remaining three were alive and transported to hospital, but died shortly after. 

A cook at the hotel, Ketut Suwiarta, told local media he heard screams shortly after the group entered the lift and then crashing sounds.

He rushed outside to help the victims and alerted authorities. 

The elevator runs on a track and transports both tourists and workers between the upper sections of the hotel high up on the ridge and the resort facilities at ground level.

It is understood the elevator was a popular Instagram attraction at the resort, offering views over the surrounding landscape.

Police are investigating why the cable broke, whether adequate safety maintenance had been done, and why there were no backup measures in case the cable broke.

The families met with Bali’s deputy governor, Cok Ace, over the weekend as Balinese Hindu ceremonies were held to cleanse the site and wish the victims well.

‘I was at the resort earlier; the Bali Police were there, the police chief too, as well as several witnesses who knew of the incident,’ he said.

‘Earlier, when I was being interviewed there, I saw for myself the scene where the rope had broken.’

All guests at the resort have been relocated to other accommodation while the investigation is underway.

Resort owner Linggawati Utomo expressed her sympathies to the victims’ families.

Ubud Police Chief, Police Commissioner Made Uder said on Monday the tragedy would serve as a wake up call to all hotels and businesses on the holiday island. 

‘The steel swing rope was not strong enough to pull the weight upwards, which was quite heavy, and the safety wedge or brake did not function, so the elevator slid downwards at high speed so this accident could not be avoided,’ he said.

The lift was reportedly inspected by an independent consultant as recently as November 2022 who said it was in operating condition.

A disagreement between Russian units in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region descended into a full-blown conflict in which at least 20 of Putin‘s troops died after shooting at each other with automatic weapons, it has been claimed.

Ukraine’s National Resistance Centre – an organisation that helps to coordinate the operations of pro-Ukrainian movements in occupied territory – reported that Russian fighters from Dagestan clashed with a unit of Chechen troops operating under orders from the head of the Republic of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Putin ally. 

A disagreement between the groups, who encountered each other in the Ukrainian town of Mykhailivka near Melitopol, led to some of the troops getting embroiled in a fist-fight. But the scrap quickly spiralled out of control.

One fighter was stabbed, at which point the violence immediately escalated and the troops drew their guns, blasting each other with automatic weapons and even grenades, according to NRC sources.

The conflict was sparked when troops from Dagestan – a poor, mountainous region of southern Russia disproportionately affected by the Russian army’s conscription drive late last year – took umbrage with the arrival of the ‘Kadyrovites’, who are particularly vocal on social media and were allegedly in town to film propaganda clips. 

Around 8pm local time, a fight broke out between the two groups. 

The NRC said: ‘During the quarrel, one of the occupants opened fire in the air from a small automatic weapon.

‘In the course of the fight, one of the occupiers was inflicted with numerous stab wounds which were fatal. 

‘This led to an open confrontation between units using under-barrel grenade launchers GP-25 Koster hand grenades and small automatic weapons.’

Some 20 Russian troops slaughtered each other in the impromptu war, with the Chechen crew ultimately being overpowered by the Dagestanis, according to the NRC.

More than 40 were allegedly wounded. 

The reports of Chechen units active in the Zaporizhzhia region corroborate the account of Britain’s Ministry of Defence whose intelligence update this week recognised Kadyrov’s praise of his troops’ work there.

‘In an online post on August 10, 2023, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov acknowledged the efforts of the Chechen Vostok Akhmat Battalion in the heavily contested Orikhiv sector in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. 

‘Kadyrov’s comments highlighted the continuing role of one of the premier Chechen units in this key area. Vostok officially comes under the command of the Southern Military District’s 42nd Motor Rifle Division which has been active around the village of Robotyne.

‘Chechen forces comprise a relatively small but high-profile component of Russian forces in Ukraine. Kadyrov likely heavily promotes his units’ roles partially to burnish his credentials as a Putin loyalist.’

The town of Orikhiv, where Kadyrov claims his troops were instrumental in fighting Ukrainian counterattacks, sits a mere 25 miles from Mykhailivka. 

The report of Russian troops turning on one another comes as pictures from the frontlines showed Ukrainian artillerymen raining fire down on Vladimir Putin‘s invaders amid Kyiv’s counter-offensive. 

The Ukrainian military said it had pushed Russian forces out of pockets of territory along the front lines in the east and south of the country, building on the gruelling counter-offensive launched two months ago.

The gains – announced by Ukraine’s deputy defence minister – came as Russia claimed its forces had progressed in the eastern Kharkiv region, undermining Kyiv’s highly anticipated campaign.

Ukraine kicked off its counter-offensive against Russian forces in June after building up assault battalions and stockpiling Western-donated weapons.

But progress has been hampered by widespread Russian-laid minefields and strong fortifications, Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said.

Nevertheless, the Ukrainian military had pushed forward around the village of Staromaiorske, around 60 miles southwest of Russian-held Donetsk, and was pressing on two fronts in the south, Maliar said. She said troops were fighting for control of the neighbouring settlement of Urozhaine.

A Moscow-installed official in an occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region said on Sunday that Kyiv was attempting to pierce Russian lines by gaining a foothold in both villages which stand in the path of Ukraine’s goal of reaching the Sea of Azov.

‘Hostilities are taking place in the vicinity of Urozhaine and the fight is for this particular locality,’ Maliar said in a statement to an official military platform. ‘There is some success on the southern and southeast axes in the vicinity of Staromaiorske.’

Maliar also said Kyiv’s army had conducted ‘certain tasks’ on the left bank (or eastern bank) of the Dnipro river in the Kherson region.

The river was rendered the de facto front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces in the region after Kyiv recaptured the territory’s main city, also called Kherson, in November.

In a recent intelligence update, the British defence ministry noted ‘an uptick in small-scale combat’ along the lower Dnipro river, where it said Ukrainian forces were attempting to conduct raids and set up new bridgeheads.

Violent doormen are abusing their power and targeting Britons on holiday, tourists have suggested, after a British man was allegedly beaten to death by bouncers in Cyprus.

Huseyin Mavideniz, 29, was attacked in the early hours of Thursday outside a club in Iskele, northern Cyprus.

He was allegedly punched in the head by the club’s security with one of the doormen said to have stamped on his head as he lay unconscious on the pavement, according to North Cyprus News. 

The British tourist was rushed to Famagusta State Hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival. 

The tragedy is the latest in a slew of violent beatings and unjustified attacks on UK holidaymakers in popular summer destinations. 

Last month, James Taylor, 18, was held in a headlock by four bouncers at the CherryBay nightclub in Laganas, on the Greek island of Zakynthos. 

Shocking footage showed how they took it in turns to punch, kick and elbow him in the face and body, before kneeing him in the face. 

James, from Middlesbrough, told MailOnline he suffered two black eyes, a swollen jaw, bumps on his head, a bust lip and a cut on his knee.

The teenager revealed that the attack happened because he had stood on a chair to take a selfie with his friends before dancing there for ten seconds. A bouncer had tried to grab James’s arm to pull him down from the chair, but when James pulled back, the club employee disappeared.

‘The bouncer came back ten seconds later with the rest of the bouncers who were in the video and they took me outside and started beating me up,’ James said. ‘That’s all it took, something as little as standing on a chair.’

His ‘devastated’ mother Michelle Taylor, 55, warned other parents that what happened to James could happen to their children. 

‘I want to get this message out there that this is unacceptable and this is happening to our children,’ Michelle told MailOnline. ‘I’m a mother and every mother will feel this if this happens to their son when they go on holiday.

‘You shouldn’t have to worry about whether they could get beaten up by bouncers.’

The island of Zakynthos, also known as Zante, is known as a hotspot for bouncer violence.

Shortly MailOnline revealed what happened to James, a mother said her 19-year-old son saw bouncers in knuckle duster gloves beating up British teenagers ‘all day, every day’ in Zante. 

Emma, not her real name, told MailOnline: ‘I wouldn’t go there. There’s too much crime and, the problem is, the crime isn’t exposed or prosecuted. I didn’t realise how bad it was over there. My son had a horrific holiday.’

Her son said he witnessed bouncers targeting British teenagers in Laganas and ‘beating the s*** out of them’. 

Charlie, not his real name, said he was on a week-long holiday to Zante in July and saw bouncers beat up five teenagers along the strip in Laganas.

‘It’s not just one punch,’ Charlie told MailOnline. ‘They’re beating the s*** out of them. The bouncers are wearing knuckle duster gloves, they’re punching, kneeing and kicking them. 

‘And even if they are on the floor, they’re still going to kick them. It’s really bad, it makes me scared of them.’ 

Charlie said his instinct told him he needed to jump and help the teenager, but he makes the point that it’s not just one bouncer attacking them. 

‘When one bouncer starts punching one of these kids, another four would come out of nowhere and begin kicking and kneeing them. This isn’t just a few punches, this is a beating. And if you get involved, you will get beaten the s*** out of as well.’ 

And the violence isn’t just restricted to men.

Shocking footage from the popular Spanish resort of Marbella last year showed a group of British women being slapped and thrown to the ground by aggressive doormen.

The revellers were standing outside Lemmon nightclub before the ugly scenes broke out in front of a crowd of onlookers.

One bouncer is seen pushing the women and carrying them off, forcing them to hastily rearrange their clothing to avoid. 

The same doorman then walks back and throws a woman in a pink dress to the ground before lifting up her friend and carrying her further away from the bar.

One of the group is heard shouting at the bouncers: ‘What the f*** are you doing?’

Moments later, the protester is angrily slapped in the face by another member of the bar staff, before the first bouncer throws the woman in the pink dress to the ground for a second time. 

Then one of the doormen whips off his belt in anger and furiously smacks it down on a metal pole.

He holds it above his head threatening to strike the women until one of his colleagues intervenes. 

Further afield, a British father and son were brutally beaten by bouncers outside a bar in Thailand‘s ‘Sin City’ of Pattaya just last week. 

Holidaymaker Ian Thomas, 60, and his son Gregory, 37, had entered the Matador Bar in the city’s Soi Buakhao red light street but were allegedly asked to leave by the bar owner at around 1.35am on August 5.

The pair were ushered outside by bouncers when their heated argument descended into a physical brawl, with Gregory first being beaten up. CCTV footage shows how he was hit and pulled to the ground where he was then kicked repeatedly.

Footage then shows how the older Brit Ian, in a black shirt, then slapped a guard across the face, sparking more chaos as the staff pushed him to the ground while repeatedly kicking him in the head.

Gregory, in a checkered polo, was seen trying to help his father but was again attacked and beaten, with his father left in a heap in the road.

Later footage from the scene showed Gregory recounting the events.

The 37-year-old said: ‘The bouncer became aggressive with me and I said ‘do you want to fight me?’. He started fighting me. I came outside and he pushed me to the ground and my shoe came off.

‘I stood up and my shoe came off. I stood up and said ‘sorry, sorry’ and I gave him 2,000 Baht. Everything was OK.’

British woman, 27, is killed in mountain bike crash in front of her husband while cycling through Italian woods

•  This news is breaking: more to follow
• If you have more information contact james.reynolds@mailonline.co.uk 

By James Reynolds and Nick Pisa

Published: 07:25 EDT, 11 August 2023 | Updated: 10:53 EDT, 11 August 2023

Pictured: Boy, five, killed in quad bike accident after travelling from Britain with his family for holiday in Ireland

• Kerry community in ‘deep shock’ after George Francis Freddie Davenport’s death

By Ian Begley

Published: 11:55 EDT, 9 August 2023 | Updated: 12:02 EDT, 9 August 2023

Crowds of mourners wept as they gathered to say their final farewells to a teenage girl who was killed in a horrific crash in Ireland alongside her best friend on their way to a prom.

Dlava Mohamed, 16, of Clones, Co Monaghan, died alongside 17-year-old Kiea McCann after their car left the N54 and crashed into a tree on the side of the road, just outside Clones. 

Dlava’s sister Auin and Oisín Clerkin, both 18, also sustained serious injuries in the crash, with the car’s driver, 60-year-old Anthony McGinn, still in intensive care. 

Today, members of the community gathered in the town square as the hearse brought the body of Dlava, who had just completed her summer exams, to her family home this evening.

The white coffin was then carried back out of the family home ahead of a funeral service in Dublin tomorrow. 

Women stood at the door of the family home and sang a lament as those gathered along the town’s streets stood in silence.

There was a similar show of support and grief in the town late last night for Kiea McCann, 17, who also died after the car they had been travelling in veered off the road and hit a tree.

As the body of Kiea was brought home to Clones, the hearse paused for a moment outside Dlava’s family home.

A funeral mass for Kiea will be held at Sacred Heart Chapel in Clones at 2pm on Thursday.

She will later be laid to rest in Mount St Oliver’s Cemetery in the town.

A funeral will be held for Dlava at Clonskeagh Mosque in Dublin on Thursday afternoon, and she will be laid to rest later in the day at Newcastle Muslim Cemetery in Dublin.

The principal of the teenagers’ secondary school said the girls had been ‘best friends’ since Dlava arrived in Clones as part of a resettlement programme for Syrians.

‘Dlava was always smiling, she was gorgeous, so loyal and bubbly, and she was always very happy,’ Largy College principal Sharon Magennis told RTE Radio.

‘She really had a goodness and she was just full of energy.’

Ms Magennis said Kiea had completed the Leaving Certificate Applied programme and was ‘pleasant and courteous’.

‘She had a great love of children and she had hoped to go on to study childcare at third level, and now that is a dream that will just not be realised.

‘We’re just heartbroken at this time. Words can’t describe how our school, our community of Clones is feeling at this time.’

The victims’ families were said to be ‘hugely devastated’ and suffering from shock in the aftermath of the crash, in which the three other occupants of the car were injured

Earlier today, Kiea’s father Frankie McCann revealed how he rushed to the scene of the crash but was unable to save his daughter or her friend due to their catastrophic injuries.

Kiea’s sister Shaunice also paid tribute to her late sibling, writing on social media: ‘I really don’t know what to say. 

‘I’m just so heartbroken over you, my little baby sister. I have no words to describe the emotions going through me right now. I really don’t know what to do without you. 

‘I am just so lost and don’t understand how something like this could just happen to you and I just hope you know that we all love you so much.’ 

The scene on the N54 Clones to Smithborough road at Legnakelly was closed to allow for a forensic examination of the scene but has since reopened.

Superintendent Patrick O’Connell said members of the victims’ families visited the scene on Monday night.

‘(They are) suffering from shock and trauma. They were at the scene last night, so they’re trying to deal with the whole aftermath of that, and we’re there to try and support them,’ he said.

Mr O’Connell added that gardai and the victims’ relatives were ‘eternally grateful’ to members of the public who stopped to offer their help at the scene of the crash.

He also thanked the ‘brilliant’ emergency services who attended the ‘harrowing scene’ on Monday night.

A senior investigating officer has been appointed to the case, which is being directed from Monaghan Garda Station.

Gardai are appealing to people who witnessed the incident which took place at 6.45pm on Monday, or who have footage of a stretch of the N54 between Clones and Smithborough between 6.15pm and 7pm on Monday, to get in touch with gardai.