Moscow is threatening to put mobilised Russian soldiers into the “meat grinder” unless they sign military contracts, intelligence officers claim.

The UK’s ministry of defence (MoD) has reported that Vladimir Putin’s officials are trying to force anyone mobilised in September 2022 to commit to extended service.

The alarming report comes as the US continues to push for a peace deal to end Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, by seemingly giving in to Moscow’s demands.

US president Donald Trump has also falsely accused Volodymyr Zelenskyy of starting the war, being a “dictator” and claimed he is deeply unpopular with the general public – despite having an approval rating above 50%.

Meanwhile, Trump has claimed he “trusts” Putin also wants peace, and they both “believe very strongly” in common sense.

But the MoD’s latest update casts a bleak new light on conditions within Russia amid Putin’s ongoing focus on the war.

It repeats the reports from the independent Russian outlet Verstka that claim Russian military commanders are “forcing” men mobilised in 2022 to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence.

The MoD claimed: “Whilst contracts given to Russian soldiers are said to have formal end dates, they can reportedly run indefinitely, with those who refuse to sign threatened with being sent into ‘meat grinder’ assaults with survival rates as low as 10-15 per cent.”

It continued: “Russian efforts to coerce mobilised soldiers to sign indefinite contracts are highly likely motivated in part by a lack of experienced soldiers, with Russia having sustained approximately 860,000 killed and wounded since invading Ukraine in 2022.

“This has severely depleted the number of Russian personnel with more than rudimentary levels of training.

“Russia’s leadership also almost certainly perceives such measures as reducing the potential requirement for further domestically unpopular mobilisations.”

Hundreds of thousands of Russians left after Putin announced the partial mobilisation of 300,000 reservists, triggering a “brain drain” across the country.

“This has substantially contributed to long-term difficulties for Russia’s labour market,” the MoD said.

Russian troops already hold around a fifth of Ukraine’s land, and are still managing to make small pushes forward to take more territory – but they’re taking heavy losses in the process.

These claims come after the MoD’s previous reports alleged Russia was strengthening penalties for breaching the law on anyone in contact with so-called “foreign agents”.

Moscow’s law defines “foreign agents” as any individual or organisation who receives financial support from abroad – and applies to independent Russian news outlets and human rights organisations.

The legislation has been repeatedly expanded since Putin’s 2022 invasion.

“This continues a wider trend of increasing domestic repression since Putin returned to the presidency in 2012, which has dramatically accelerated since the invasion of Ukraine,” the MoD wrote.