Putin's elite fighters. Who exactly did the Russian army lose in Ukraine?

According to the assessment of both Western and Russian experts, the unified military units of the Russian army were not ready for offensive operations. Therefore, special forces, marines and paratroopers had to perform tasks normally assigned to infantry.

These units, traditionally considered the elite of the Russian army, suffered significant losses during the six-month invasion of Ukraine. Dozens of military pilots also died. According to experts, compensation for the loss of all these Russian experts will be problematic.

 

Special officers of the GRU

 

Since September 1, from open sources, the BBC has managed to determine the death of 151 members of the GRU special forces, of whom almost every fourth was an officer (22 percent). These figures do not show the actual number of victims, but they give an opportunity to estimate at least approximately how many special forces were lost by the Russian army fighting in Ukraine.

Judging by published obituaries, the 22nd Guards Brigade of Special Forces suffered the greatest losses in Ukraine. At least 30 soldiers of the brigade and four company commanders were killed (there are only four companies of special forces in the brigade).

According to Michael Kofman, an expert at the Center for Naval Analysis, for every Russian soldier killed in the war in Ukraine, there are about 3.5 wounded. Based on these data, it can be assumed that at least 130 people could be out of service (at least temporarily) from the 22nd GRU brigade due to death or injury.

The exact number of special units is confidential. But even according to conservative estimates, the loss of 130 fighters can be equated to the loss of one of the special forces teams. During the war in Chechnya, the reconnaissance companies of the GRU special forces numbered 45-70 people. If we take this estimate as a basis, it is possible that half of the brigade's scouts have lost their combat ability.

Other formations of the GRU special forces suffered similar losses during the war in Ukraine.

The 24th Guards Brigade lost at least 21 people, including four officers. Information is known about the 26 dead soldiers of the 3rd Guards Brigade, i.e. about the five officers. In Ukraine, the deputy commander of the 16th Guards Special Forces Brigade in the rank of lieutenant colonel, the chief of staff of the same brigade in the rank of major, and the company commander in the rank of captain were killed.

The loss of a special forces officer can be the most sensitive and difficult for the Russian army, according to experts interviewed by the BBC.

In case of loss of ordinary specialists (for example, specialists in grenade launchers or mortars), a replacement soldier can be trained in a few weeks, in rare cases - in one or two months. If the commander of the GRU special forces dies, he can only be replaced by an officer of the same military specialty.

It will take at least four years to train a lieutenant of the appropriate qualification. And in order to lead a company, a lieutenant must gain experience and advance to captain, which will take about four more years. In total, at least eight years of training, experts say.

 

In the USSR, special units of the GRU were entrusted with the most important covert operations and sabotage behind enemy lines. In order to provide them with the best weapons and uniforms, separate research institutes worked on special orders.

 

In Russia, GRU units began to be given other - unusual for them - tasks, because many other army units were not ready to participate in battles.

In the early years of the war in Chechnya, the GRU special forces were often used simply as a joint military intelligence service. And during the attack on Grozny, special forces units were mostly attached to assault groups on a general basis.

Experts interviewed by the BBC note that in the war on the territory of Ukraine, GRU units are again used to perform tasks that are not typical for elite intelligence officers, and this leads to additional losses.

A similar conclusion can be drawn based on published obituaries. For example, it is reported that GRU Major Andrey Kunakov was killed in Mariupol while "cleaning the streets". Usually, the inspection and inspection of the streets in the captured settlements is carried out by units of the second echelon. Hiring elite scouts for such tasks is odd, to say the least.

 

Special Forces of the Russian Guard

 

In peacetime, the security units of the Russian Guard usually specialize in dispersing demonstrations, as well as in operations to detain a certain person or small armed groups in various Russian settlements.

Despite this, Russian guardsmen were sent to Ukraine from the first day of the invasion. Since September 1, 245 officers of the Russian Guard have been known to have died, most of them fighters of special purpose units (special forces, SOBR and OMON). Almost every fourth of them had an officer rank.

At least 16 Russians who died had special decorations and wore colorful berets - the professional distinction of the most trained special forces, which is a matter of extreme pride.

According to open data, since September 1, the 25th detachment of special forces "Bars" from Kazan suffered the greatest loss of personnel. 10 of its members died in Ukraine, including two policemen. Judging by the monument, the unit lost as many people during the half-year war in Ukraine as during the 10-year conflict in Chechnya.

The "Merkur" special forces from the city of Smolensk also suffered similar losses. According to the results of a small investigation, the Air Force was able to confirm the death of at least 10 soldiers of the detachment.

On July 28, the veteran organization "Brotherhood of berets-Penza" published a video showing the memorial corner at the location of the 26th special unit "Merkur". On the table are photos of 18 special forces with black memorial ribbons, and two carnations next to them.

After the BBC briefly posted the video, the post was removed, but a preserved copy remained online.

Photos of eight of the 18 special forces (that is, 40 percent of probable "Merkur" losses) have not yet been identified.

We can see the same trend regarding the situation in Russian cemeteries. Searching for the graves of Russian soldiers who died after February 24, 2022, we find not only the graves of those whose deaths were publicly reported, but also approximately the same number (and sometimes more) of soldiers and officers whose deaths were not reported to the authorities or local journalists nor relatives on social networks.

 

From these observations, it can be assumed that the list of confirmed victims of Russian military personnel maintained by the Air Force may contain at least 40-60 percent fewer names than are actually buried in Russia.

There are also reports of casualties in the "Vityaz" special forces: at least seven people, including two officers, were killed there. This unit was the first special unit in the internal forces, so service in it is considered particularly prestigious, and the training standards of fighters are among the highest.

 

FSB and FSO of Russia

About 20 FSB and FSO officers who died during the invasion of Ukraine are known from open sources. Most of these victims are officers of border troops subordinate to the FSB. But among the dead there are also officers of the most confidential units.

According to Andriy Soldatov, an expert on Russian special services, the FSB special purpose center actively participates in hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, especially during the operations of the forces in the occupied territories (for example, in Kherson).

Information is known about the death of the lieutenant colonel of the Special Operations Department of the FSB Mikola Horban. Kamchatka media reports on the death of FSB special forces lieutenant colonel Sergei Privalov.

In the summer, the grave of Lieutenant Colonel Volodymyr Margiyev appeared on the Alley of Heroes of the Nicholas Archangel Cemetery in the suburbs of Moscow. It is not known exactly where the officer served, but in the photo he is wearing a dark blue uniform with FSB emblems. According to tradition, soldiers of the FSB special forces "Alfa" and "Vimpel" were buried on this alley, although other soldiers were occasionally buried as well.

FSB lieutenant colonel Aleksii Kryukov, who died in the first days of the war, was buried at the Yekaterinburg cemetery. On his grave is a wreath from the "A" department of the FSB, and on the photo is the logo of the "Alfa" detachment. In June, reports appeared about the death of Alfa captain Ilja Cuprik, but then there was a version that he could have died earlier, in Syria.

If all these officers really died in Ukraine, then this is a very serious blow to the special forces of the FSB. For the sake of comparison: "Alfa" last lost more than three employees in half a year in 1995-1996 - after severe attacks in Budjonovsko and Pervomajsko.

 

The best airborne units

 

Paratroopers make up exactly one fifth of all identified Russian soldiers who died during the war in Ukraine. Apart from a few units, Russian infantry has not actively participated in hostilities since the 2008 Russian-Georgian war.

"The general military units of the Armed Forces of Russia were not ready for assault operations. Moreover, to a lesser extent - conceptually, due to the lack of heavy equipment, and to a much greater extent - technically, due to the banal impossibility of conducting close combat with small arms", notes the retired Russian officer Aleksandar Aratyunov.

Therefore, the main burden of the fight in the first weeks of the war fell on the VAT detachments.

Judging by the open data, the biggest losses were suffered by the 331st guard regiment of the VAT from Kostroma: officially there are only more than 80 dead, including the regiment commander and 20 other officers.

The paratroopers of the 331st regiment were considered one of the strongest units of the Russian army. They regularly won various interdepartmental competitions and repeatedly marched on May 9 on Red Square in Moscow.

 

Soldiers and officers of the regiment distinguished themselves in the operations of the Russian army in the Balkans, fought in Chechnya, and participated in hostilities in the Donetsk region of Ukraine in 2014.

The attempt to break through to Kiev at the beginning of March cost the 331st regiment dozens of lives. After the withdrawal of the Russians, the unit was briefly withdrawn to Belarus. At the beginning of April, the Kostroma paratroopers participated in the battles for Izjum in the Donetsk region, and in May they were transferred to the Lugansk region, near Popasna.

Taking into account those soldiers whose deaths were not publicly announced, the actual number of dead in the 331st regiment may reach 150 men. If we add to that the approximate number of wounded (based on the calculation that for every two dead there are approximately seven wounded), the regiment could not count 650-670 people. This is more than half the probable number of the 331st regiment at the beginning of the war.

The 247th guards regiment of the VAT from Stavropol also suffered serious losses. A year before the start of the war, he received a special flag from the Ministry of Defense "as a sign of special trust and recognition for his merits". During six months of fighting in Ukraine, the paratroopers lost 63 people, including the regimental commander and at least 12 other officers.

Much less is known about the losses in the most elite unit of the VAT - the 45th Guards Brigade of Special Forces, based in Kubinka near Moscow. From the open sources of the Air Force, it was possible to determine the death of 14 soldiers of this unit and one officer. For the sake of comparison: in the seven years of Russian military operations in Syria, only three soldiers of this brigade were reported dead.

 

Marines

 

Russian marine units actively participated in the invasion of the territory of Ukraine. They mostly fight on the southern front. According to public data, the 810th Guards Brigade, based in the annexed Crimea, suffered the greatest losses. The Marines lost at least 56 men, especially two brigade commanders: Alexii Sharov was killed in March, and Sergey Kens, who replaced him, in July.

In the comments on the announcement about the death of the second brigadier general, insiders wrote that the colonel "did not arrive at the hospital." If everything is really so, then this is a vivid illustration of the serious problems of the Russian army: the lack of modern personal first aid kits and channels for the evacuation of the wounded.

"Supplying soldiers with first aid kits and actual first aid skills on the battlefield plays a huge role in war. This directly affects the number of casualties and the number of survivors. Russia already had these problems in Chechnya, when it could not establish an efficient system for evacuating its wounded for a long time. This time it seems that Moscow did not take into account the mistakes in the medical care issues," says Professor Sarah Ashbridge of the Royal Institute of Defense Studies.

In August, many Russian soldiers and officers received new personal first aid kits. They were bought by volunteers with money collected for the army across the country.

The 336th Guards Brigade lost 40 marines, including the brigade's chief of staff in the rank of colonel and brigade commander in the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Information is also known about 52 casualties from the 155th Guards Brigade, including eight officers.

 

Military pilots

 

As of September 1, the Air Force has information on 67 Russian military pilots who died during the invasion of Ukraine (including navigators and flight mechanics). This is a special category of losses, because the crews of fighter planes and helicopters are top experts and elite of any army in the world. The training of one pilot can last 15-17 years and costs 12-14 million dollars.

Despite the formal presence of hundreds of modern and combat-capable multipurpose fighters and fighter-bombers, the Russian Aerospace Forces were unable to organize a large-scale air campaign, experts note. It is possible that this is related to the loss of leading military pilots in the first months of the war.

"In practice, the number of Russian pilots who have the necessary skills and experience to exploit the full potential of multirole fighters is very limited," says Justin Bronk, senior analyst at the Royal Institute for Defense Studies.

Data on losses among pilots can be an indirect confirmation of the words of experts. At least five of the pilots who died were over 50 years old. It is known that some of them should have been retired a few years ago. Their participation in combat flights may be an indicator of the lack of qualified and motivated pilots among the younger generation.

At the same time, dozens of experienced pilots were shot down in the first weeks of the war. For example, the commander of the air regiment from Transbaikalia was killed on the first day of hostilities. The commander of the aviation unit with experience of the war in Georgia and Syria did not return from the flight on March 8.

According to British intelligence, for many years the military pilot training program in Russia followed a strict and pre-approved plan designed to impress senior officers.

 

Such a system could stifle initiative and did not contribute to training the skills of quick independent decision-making. This could hinder the development of the combat skills of the young crews of the Russian military aviation.

"It is difficult to understand exactly what Russian pilots do during most flights, because there is no such information in open sources. But we definitely see and know that Russian planes rarely go deep into the territory controlled by Ukraine, due to the effectiveness of the Ukrainian surface-to-air anti-missile defense system," he says. Bronco.

"Thus, despite the presence of hundreds of modern (and on paper, combat-capable) multipurpose fighters and fighter-bombers, the Air Force could not conduct a large-scale offensive air campaign," concludes the expert.