Irish Examiner view: Russia conscripts will pay a bloody price

'Annexation of Ukrainian provinces moves the war into an escalated, problematic, quasi-legal status.' Picture: Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

In the Battle of Stalingrad, 80 years ago this autumn, the Russians adopted a novel form of punishment for backsliders in their ranks. 

Soldiers deemed to have shown insufficient resilience in the face of the enemy were organised into penal battalions, or shtrafniki.