A conspiracy theory of mine is that Putin’s quite aware of Russia’s aging population, and launched the war to capture Ukraine’s comparatively young population/high birthrate.

The age cliff they’re facing is a very real problem. But Putin also has a pretty conspicuous fixation on biological research, genetics, and “ethnic” Russians that all feels eugenics-adjacent: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/12/28/ethnic-weapons-and-immortality

Anyway, given Russia’s population of 142 million and conscripts mostly being young men, that would, ironically, be a devastating hit Russia’s “demographic health.” And even if the war ends tomorrow, quite terrible for Ukraine, unfortunately :(