Leaks say Russia 'has suffered devastating losses to its elite units'

Russia has suffered devastating losses to its elite Spetsnaz commando units that could take a decade to replenish after bungling commanders sent them to help failing frontline infantry, leaked US documents reveal

• Assessment says it will take Moscow years to replenish its special forces units
• This is after Russian commanders sent Spetsnaz troops into direct combat

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has devastated Russia’s clandestine special (Spetsnaz) forces, classified American documents that were leaked online reported.

According to the assessment, it will take Moscow years to rebuild its Spetsnaz units back to their former strength after they were sent to the frontlines in Ukraine by Putin’s bungling commanders to prop up their failing frontline infantry.

The leak first became widely known about a week ago, setting Washington on edge about the damage they may have caused to Ukraine’s war effort. The episode embarrassed the US by revealing its spying on allies and Kyiv’s vulnerabilities. 

But the revelations have also demonstrated how deep American spy networks have infiltrated the Kremlin’s own intelligence agencies and military command structure.

And to compound the Kremlin’s own embarrassment, the documents have also provided a damning assessment of Russia’s own military capabilities.

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has decimated Russia’s clandestine special (Spetsnaz) forces, classified American documents that were leaked online reported. Pictured: Russian Spetsnaz march during the military parade at Red Square on May 9, 2021 in Moscow (file photo)

This photograph taken on Feb. 27, 2022 shows a Russian Armoured personnel carrier burning next to unidentified soldier’s body during fight with the Ukrainian armed forces in Kharkiv

The deployment of Spetsnaz units is typically reserved for stealthy, high-risk missions which require soldiers with significant determination, skill and ruthlessness.

READ MORE: Ukraine denies its troops are surrounded in Bakhmut after Russia claimed it had cut off last supply route – as terrifying video shows thermite bombs raining down over city 

In the early days of the war, it is understood such units were ordered – and failed – to penetrate the heart of Kyiv and capture Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky.

For such missions, the units receive some of the most advanced training available to Russia’s military which takes years to complete – and high levels of expertise.

However, when Putin ordered his forces across the border in February 2022, Russia’s senior commanders ordered their elite forces into direct combat – not trusting their conventional fighters to be effective on their own.

As a result, the units have taken heavy losses, greatly reducing their capabilities. 

This is according to top-secret US intelligence findings that emerged in the leak, and that prompted a national security investigation culminating in the arrest of Jack Teixeira – a 21-year-old national guardsman on Thursday.

One of the leaked documents, seen by the Washington Post, shows before-and-after satellite imagery of a base used by the 22nd Separate Spetsnaz Brigade.

The images of the base in southern Russia 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 Post reports.

The satellite images show the base in November 2021, and again a year later. The earlier image shows a well populated base full of vehicles, while the second is far more empty – which the US intel concluded shows a state of extreme depletion.

The assessment says the 22nd Separate Spetsnaz Brigade as well as two other units have suffered an estimated 90 to 95 percent attrition rate, The Post says.

It takes four years for Russia to train a Spetsnaz soldier, according to the documents seen by the American publication, which concludes that it could take as long as a decade for Moscow to replenish its ranks of these elite units.

The loss of experienced units will also be a major problem for the Russian armed forces, the document assesses.

While The Post says that the documents do not state how many Spetsnaz troops have been killed or wounded in Ukraine, it reported the intel as saying that one unit alone – the 346th – lost almost the entire brigade. It said just 125 of 900 remained deployed.

Rob Lee, a Russia military expert and senior fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told The Post that by pushing their special units to the frontlines, Russian commanders have burned through them at an alarming rate.

The tactic was seen in the early days of the war when Moscow attempted to seize Kyiv, he told The Post, and in the eastern city of Kharkiv.

In Khariv, Lee told the publication, Spetsnaz troops arrived in small numbers and with little support. Many were killed or captured, he said, adding that a similar situation was seen in the southern city of Mariupol and in the eastern Donbas.

The US documents say that the loss of special troops will have a knock-on effect. The Russian military will have lost its ability to train paramilitary groups, and will also mean its special forces will be less effective in other parts of the world.

Pictured: Russian Spetsnaz fighters are seen training in this file photo. According to the US assessment, it will take Moscow years to rebuild its Spetsnaz units back to their former strength after they were sent to the frontlines in Ukraine

Pictured: Russian Spetsnaz fighters are seen training in this file photo. It takes four years for Russia to train a Spetsnaz soldier, according to the documents seen by the American publication, which concludes that it could take as long as a decade for Moscow to replenish its ranks of these elite units

The leak of documents, posted largely on social media sites, was believed to be the most serious security breach since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2010.

READ MORE: Jack ‘the Dripper’ Teixeira, 21, is due in court today after FBI arrested the Airman 1st Class for leaking highly classified Pentagon documents 

 

According to The New York Times, a ‘trail of digital evidence’ pointed to Teixeira as the leader of the private group on Discord, called Thug Shaker Central, where the documents surfaced.

The embarrassing security breach has revealed US unease over the viability of a coming counteroffensive by Kyiv’s forces against Russian troops as well as concerns about Ukrainian air defences, and pointed to US spying on allies including Israel and South Korea.

President Joe Biden addressed the leak earlier on Thursday during his visit to Ireland, saying he was ‘concerned’.

US media reported that the Biden administration is seeking to beef up its monitoring of social media sites and chat rooms after intelligence agencies failed to spot the leaked documents online for weeks.

The Pentagon has also ‘begun to limit who across the government receives its highly classified daily intelligence briefs,’ CNN reported on Thursday.

The alleged leaker reportedly went by the nickname ‘OG’ and regularly posted documents in the chat group in question for months.

The group of around 24 people, including some from Russia and Ukraine, bonded over their ‘mutual love of guns, military gear and God,’ and formed an ‘invitation-only clubhouse in 2020 on Discord,’ reported The Post – which like the Times cited unidentified members of Thug Shaker Central.

OG told the group members that he spent ‘some of his day inside a secure facility that prohibited cellphones and other electronic devices,’ The Post report said.

Russian paratroopers were filmed at Hostomel airbase on the first day of the invasion before being wiped out by Ukrainian forces in their doomed bid to take the site. Pictured: Footage posted online purports to show at least eight Russian troops getting out of a helicopter at the airbase on February 24 in an attempt to seize it

He first wrote down the contents of classified documents to share with the group, but later began taking photos, telling other members not to share them, the newspaper reported.

OG had a ‘dark view of the government,’ and ‘spoke of the United States, and particularly law enforcement and the intelligence community, as a sinister force that sought to suppress its citizens and keep them in the dark,’ the Post said, citing one of the group’s members.

A Discord spokesperson told AFP news agency that user safety is a priority, and that content violating its policies can result in people being banned, servers being shut down, and police alerted.

‘In regards to the apparent breach of classified material, we are cooperating with law enforcement,’ the spokesperson said. ‘As this remains an active investigation, we cannot provide further comment at this time.’

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