The large-scale casualties of the Russian Special Forces in the early days of the war, especially the devastating losses in the Battle of Kyiv, are considered to be one of the important reasons why the “special military operation” has continued to this day. Without enough elite combat infantry, relying solely on “volunteers” who are sent to the battlefield after weeks of training, it is difficult to fight against the experienced Ukrainian army, almost all of whom were in the East before the outbreak of the war.
According to the available public information, the BBC’s Russian branch announced that more than 900 Russian Special Forces Personnel have been killed in action. These elites can be regarded as experts, including pilots, special forces, airborne troops and marines. Among the Russian special forces killed in action, nearly a quarter of them are officers.
Such as the 24th Special Detachment of the Russian Army, which lost 11 people in the second Chechnya war, no loss during the deployment in Syria from 2015 to 2021, and in “special military operations”, as of July they lost more than 80 officers alone, including former regiment commander Sergei Sukharev.
It’s important to note that these figures are based on public information only, and the true loss figures are thought to be much higher. These Russian elites are far from comparable to the Buryat troops from the Far East. Most of them have more than 10 years of rich military experience. Maybe they can continue to build or re-open the tanks after the loss, but these elite soldiers have to spend enough time and a lot of resources to train it out.
In the early days of the “special military operation”, due to the inability to successfully capture the airport near Kyiv, the most elite special forces and airborne troops of the Russian army were continuously sent to the airport, and were besieged by the superior Ukrainian army mechanized forces, which even got directly under the heavy fire of Ukrainian army. The artillery brigade fire support of the Army High Command suffered devastating losses. In the brutal battle of Mariupol, the Ukrainian army directly killed many elite Russian troops, including the Black Sea Fleet Marine Corps, after paying a heavy price.
After losing these elite Russian troops as the spearhead of the attack, the current Russian army’s combat power has dropped significantly. In places such as Donbas, the Russian army can only fight the war of attrition with resources, not to mention the elite Russian army, even the ordinary combat infantry it’s not enough, let alone launching an attack with tanks and artillery. As for the air-to-ground coordination with the Russian Aerospace Forces, don’t even think about it. In Kherson, the Donbas militia deployed on the front line was destroyed as soon as it was attacked, and by the way, the Russian special forces who came to fight the fire were scattered.
According to public reports, the Russian army has sent almost all available elite troops to Ukraine. Note that these elites not only include Russian special forces, but also police special forces, but it is clear that there is a huge difference between special police and special forces. Differently, it is totally unrealistic to expect them to compete with Ukrainian special forces trained by NATO military advisers.
The Pentagon has publicly acknowledged that the destruction of the Russian troops is mainly due to the “HIMARS ” and other weapons and personnel, which were trained before the war by the Ukrainian special forces and NATO special forces , Many Western countries, especially the special forces of the United States and the United Kingdom, passed on their combat experience in Afghanistan and the Middle East to their Ukrainian counterparts, and further, after discovering the important targets of the Russian army, there is no need to take risks at all, only need just to upload the coordinates and the detailed information that can be observed, and the Ukrainian army will naturally choose to use “HIMARS” or other weapons to destroy these important targets.