(Reuters) - Russian families must produce at least two children for the sake of the nation’s ethnic survival, and three or more if it is to develop and thrive, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

Russia has suffered heavy but undisclosed casualties since launching its war in Ukraine nearly two years ago, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled the country out of opposition to the conflict or fear of being called up to fight.

Putin told employees at a tank factory in the Urals region that two children per family was the minimum number if the peoples of Russia were to preserve their identities.

#world