It took years of effort and millions of dollars to train them, as the BBC’s Russian service reports in its investigative report.
Over the course of six months, the Russian army lost thousands of soldiers in Ukraine. Estimates of the number of Russian servicemen killed in Ukraine vary, but it is not only the total number of servicemen killed that matters, but who specifically were killed and who are they, writes in its investigative report the Russian service of the BBC, which, citing Western and Russian experts, points out that it managed to document that Russia lost more than 900 men of the elite units, for the training of which it took years of effort and spending millions of dollars.
According to the estimates of both Western and Russian experts, the troops of the Russian army turned out to be not ready to carry out offensive actions. As a result, objectives normally assigned to the infantry to achieve had to be carried out by special forces units, marines and paratroopers.
These units, which are traditionally considered the elite units of the Russian army, suffered significant losses during the six-month invasion of Ukraine. Dozens of Air Force pilots were also killed. According to experts, replacing all these men of Russia’s elite forces will be problematic.
Specifically, according to the investigation of the Russian service of the BBC, the losses of these elite units are as follows: 337 marines, 245 men of special units of the Russian National Guard, 151 men of the military secret service (GRU), 144 men who made up two elite regiments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 67 pilots of the Air Force and 20 men of the Federal Security Service (FSB) were killed and the Federal Protection Service (FSO).
The BBC points out that the figures for these casualties are given on the basis of the list of confirmed military deaths, which the BBC compiles in collaboration with the website Mediazona (in Russia it is listed as “MME-foreign agent”) and a group of volunteers who draw data from open sources.
RES-EMP
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