Russia’s commando units gutted by Ukraine war, U.S. leak shows
The war in Ukraine has gutted Russia’s clandestine spetsnaz forces and it will take Moscow years to rebuild them, according to classified U.S. assessments obtained by The Washington Post.
The finding, which has not been previously reported, is among a cache of sensitive materials leaked online through the messaging platform Discord. U.S. officials attributed their assessments to Russian commanders’ overreliance on the specialized units who have been put to use as part of front-line infantry formations that, like the Ukrainians, have suffered massive numbers of dead and wounded.
Typically, spetsnaz personnel are assigned the sorts of stealthy, high-risk missions including an apparent order to capture Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky for which they receive some of the Russian military’s most advanced training. But when Moscow launched its fullscale invasion last year, senior commanders eager to seize momentum and skeptical of their conventional fighters’ prowess deviated from the norm, ordering elite forces into direct combat, according to U.S. intelligence findings and independent analysts who have closely followed spetsnaz deployments.
The rapid depletion of Russia’s commando units, observers say, shifted the war’s dynamic from the outset, severely limiting Moscow’s ability to employ clandestine tactics in support of conventional combat operations. U.S. officials believe the staggering casualties these units have sustained will render them less effective not only in Ukraine but also in other parts of the world where Russian forces operate, according to the assessments, which range in date from late 2022 to earlier this year.
The hollowing of these units appears to be evident in satellite imagery featured among the leaked materials. Before-and-after photos - showing a base used by the 22nd Separate Spetsnaz Brigade in southern Russia, according to the document - reveal that “all but one of five Russian Separate Spetsnaz Brigades that returned from combat operations in Ukraine in late summer 2022 suffered significant losses.”
The slide includes two overhead images, one taken in November 2021, months before the invasion began, and another captured a year later. The former shows a bustling motor pool teeming with vehicles; the latter reveals what U.S. officials concluded is a state of extreme depletion months after the brigade’s return home with fewer than half of the Tigr tactical vehicles it had before the deployment. The 22nd and two other spetsnaz brigades suffered an estimated 90 to 95 percent attrition rate, the assessments say.
Compounding Russia’s problems is the loss of experience within its elite forces. Spetsnaz soldiers require at least four years of specialized training, the U.S. documents say, concluding that it could take as long as a decade for Moscow to reconstitute these units.