Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, Moscow’s armed forces have suffered heavy casualties. According to Ukrainian information, two decimated brigades are now to be completely disbanded. One of the units was part of the Russian spearhead on February 24th.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the Russian authorities want to disband two elite units that have suffered heavy losses in Ukraine. This was announced by the deputy chief of the General Staff’s main operational department, Oleksiy Gromov, at a briefing to journalists on Thursday. Accordingly, it is the 31st Air Assault Brigade and the 22nd Spetsnaz Brigade. Less than 20 percent of the personnel from the two units are still alive, Gromov said. The information cannot be independently verified.
The 22nd Spetsnaz Brigade is a special forces subordinate to the Russian military intelligence service GRU. The association can look back on a long tradition. Founded in the Soviet Union in 1976, the brigade fought in Afghanistan and took part in the civil war in Angola. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the unit moved its headquarters to the Rostov region. After the Russian invasion on February 24, the unit took part in the bloody siege of Mariupol.
The 31st Air Assault Brigade was formed in 1998 and is part of the Russian Airborne Forces. Their base is in the southern Russian city of Ulyanovsk. The paratroopers participated in the occupation of Crimea in 2014 and subsequently fought against the Ukrainian army in Donbass. At the beginning of June, the “Moscow Times” tracked the movements of the 31st Air Assault Brigade in Ukraine. Accordingly, the unit was one of the first to set foot on Ukrainian soil during the Russian invasion in February.
However, the brigade suffered heavy casualties in fighting around Hostomel Airport. The Ukrainian secret service put the number of dead in Hostomel at up to 50. The independent Russian media portal Mediazona counted 34 members of the 31st Brigade buried in Ulyanovsk between February 25 and March 7.
After retreating from the Kyiv region, the paratroopers fought near Izyum and Sieverodonetsk in Donbass. In early April, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that 25 soldiers from the 31st Brigade had refused to take part in the war. Military analyst Rob Lee told the Moscow Times that the surviving paratroopers were likely grouped into a tactical battalion group for combat in the east. Lee estimated that about 2,000 soldiers from the brigade were sent to Ukraine.
