Vladimir Putin’s ongoing war in Ukraine has caused a worrying shortage of police in Russia, according to the UK.

Fewer officers on the streets has reportedly led to rising violent crime rates – and the instability is only expected to grow when Russian military personnel return from the frontline.

Russia’s interior minister – Vladimir Kolokotsev – reportedly said there were 172,000 vacancies in the ministry of internal affairs in March.

In its latest update on X, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said that was an increase of 33,000 in the last year.

The issue is so severe, a few have taken matters into their own hands.

The MoD said: “Some Russian civilians have been reported as forming armed self-defence units as a result.”

The British intelligence officials suggested this stemmed from Putin’s focus on the war in Ukraine as he tries to recruit more Russians to the military.

The MoD said: “Decreased policy sign-up and retention rates have likely been caused by a combination of: the relatively low salaries on offer; higher salaries and notably sign-up bonuses in the military and related industries; and concerns that joining the police may result in being sent to Ukraine, where Russia has likely sustained more than 900,000 casualties.”

While this is likely a “matter of concern” for the Kremlin, the problem is not likely to go away any time soon.

“The Russian senior leadership highly likely considers the issue to be a matter of concern, with rising violent crime rates expected to increase further with the return of Russian military personnel, widely accused of atrocities from the war against Ukraine,” the officials said.

“The leadership will highly likely continue prioritising funding and resource for the war against Ukraine over the police in the short-medium term.”

These internal pressures comes shortly after Donald Trump told reporters he was getting “pissed off” with Putin’s response to peace talks.

The US president has been pushing for a quick resolution to the war – even if it settled on Russia’s terms – but Moscow has been dragging its feet.

Trump said on Sunday he was “very angry” at his Russian counterpart for suggesting Volodymyr Zelenskyy should be replaced as Ukraine’s leader.

He also threatened to impose tariffs on Russian imports if a ceasefire is not agreed within a month.

While Zelenskyy has agreed to an unconditional 30-day truce in the war, Putin has so far refused.

He has made a series of demands in return for a partial ceasefire instead, and questioned Zelenskyy’s credibility.