[way]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/03...-conflict/

Just about every big story in the news can be better understood for seeing it through a demographic lens. When viewing the current conflict in Ukraine, we might wonder whether Russia’s staying power will be affected by the fact that the average Russian mother will have no more than one son. As the body bags start coming back home to Moscow or Vladivostok, this might shape the reaction.

By contrast the generation of Russians who fought Hitler were the product of families of six or seven. This may well reduce Russia’s preparedness to sustain losses. And Russia may just run out of men for a long war; when the Soviet Union went into Afghanistan, it had a population almost double that of today’s Russia, and many more young people.