Russian elite special forces suffered destructive losses in Ukraine - The National Interest
According to the origins of the Pentagon and the BBC messages, the Russian special forces crews have declined significantly. The reduction of "special forces" appeared before the First World War, but only after the Second World War Stalin created the first official units. Initially, the special units were part of the GRU and the Federal Security Service (FSB). These units specialize in direct actions, strategic intelligence and non -traditional methods of warfare.
Usually they have the best weapons and equipment. From the point of view of preparation in all units, there is a qualification for parachute sports, but only the most beautiful are qualified for jumping from very high height. The special forces of the game and the FSB today are the most elusive and the most professional.
These are the divisions of special operations of 1st level and comparison, at least on paper, with the Delta detachment of the US Army and the SEAL TEAM 6 detachment of the US Navy. During a full -scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin threw everything he had, incl. Elite forces. The Russian military command planned to use these units to achieve easy victory.
While the paratroopers of the Russian Air Force stormed Gostomel Airport near Kiev, special forces had to attack President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky and other high -ranking officials. The Kremlin wanted to delay the Ukrainian structure of management and control at the most important point in the conflict and cause chaos to the enemy. The attempt to eliminate Zelensky and the Ukrainian leadership failed.
At the same time, the Russian military continued to use the elite forces of Specialty in conflict. Special forces appeared in all important battles, including Mariupol, Kherson, Lyman, Kharkiv, Kiev and Donbass, journalists say. Severe losses also touched the elite special forces. In April 2023, the US Air Force National Guard pilot opened several secret documents. Some concerned wars in Ukraine and the pentagon evaluations of combatants.
There were also documents on special forces and losses in the war. It was reported that all, except for one of the five brigades of special forces who went to the war on February 24, 2022, suffered significant losses by the end of the summer. According to military intelligence agency, there were only "125 active servicemen from 900 deployed" in one of the individual teams of special forces. In military terms, it is a unit that has lost almost 90% of its combat.
Such figures would only increase, as the Armed Forces began an extremely successful counter -offensive only a few weeks later, in September 2022. In just a few days, hundreds of square kilometers of the territory were released. During the counter -offensive, the Third Guards Brigade of Special Forces of the GRU, one of the most elusive units of Russia, was caught during the retreat and was forced to conduct defense in Lyman.
The following BBC messages stated that the special forces unit lost up to 75% of personnel. Russian military even use special forces units to attack Ukrainian trenches, which is usually the task of ordinary infantry. Although there are no fresh data on the loss of special forces after the summer of 2022, the extremely high losses suffered by all Russian forces indicate that special forces continue to suffer significant losses.
In total, the Russian forces have lost almost 700,000 people in battles, the losses continue to grow daily, journalists say. Moscow will not be able to reproduce the potential of Specialty in the near future. In the leaky secret documents, the Pentagon estimated that Russia would take up to 10 years to restore its potential for special operations.
The Russian Federation can try to reproduce their special forces, but to fill the strategic potential for special operations, it takes a lot more than just figures. Stavros Atlaseglu is an experienced military journalist who specializes in special operations. Writes for Business Insider, Sandboxx and Sofrep. We will remind that on October 31 the Combat 3 OSHBR invited to the service of fighters from the HSC.