When Timothy Ash travelled around the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, he met young veterans who had returned from the war in Afghanistan. They were psychologically broken – and drunk.

“They were pretty f----- up, a lot of them,” says Ash, now associate fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia programme.

One night in Volgograd, in southern Russia, Ash met a man in his mid-20s who had fought in Afghanistan. “He got absolutely blasted, drunk as hell. Something was not right with the kid. He ended up getting attacked by a group of youths because he’d gotten so drunk.

“He got beaten to pulp. I had to drag him out.”

Russia has a long history with alcoholism. But after the fall of the Soviet Union, drinking was in decline.

Now, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, official figures show alcohol addiction is surging again for the first time in a decade.

Vodka sales this year surged to a record high and policymakers are scrambling to halt a rise in alcohol-related deaths.