Russian conscripts can expect to die within half an hour of arriving on the battlefield, according to reports (Picture: Reuters) Half a million casualties, fuel shortages and key infrastructure destroyed; Putin’s war machine continues to take its toll in Russia. It has now been more than 50 months since the Russian president launched his ‘special military operation’ – a war which has now outlasted the First World War and dragged on longer than Russia’s conflict against Nazi Germany. Now, new reports suggest that Russian soldiers are being butchered not within days or hours, but within minutes of going to war....