Russia Shifting Offensive Ops to Elite Airborne Troops—ISW

Russia's elite airborne troops are taking increasing responsibility for Moscow's offensive operations in Ukraine, according to a new assessment.

Russia's military commanders are "seeking to place an increased emphasis" on airborne troops, or VDV units, which have been deployed to key areas on the front, such as near the contested Donetsk city of Bakhmut and the Luhansk region, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Sunday.

Earlier this month, Moscow and Kyiv noted that airborne troops were supporting Russia's conventional and Wagner Group mercenary forces in the destroyed eastern city of Bakhmut. The recruits of the mercenary outfit had been leading Russia's efforts to capture the city, which Ukraine "repelled" on Monday, according to Kyiv's General Staff of the Armed Forces.

On Sunday, Russia's defense ministry said VDV units were still "constraining" Ukrainian movement on the Wagner assault flanks in Bakhmut. Earlier in April, Moscow said its airborne troops heading for Ukraine would be able to use the TOS-1A thermobaric rocket launcher "for the first time in their history." This suggested that Russia's military "may seek to elevate the VDV to greater operational prominence," the ISW said on Sunday.

The Russian commander of the VDV, General Colonel Mikhail Teplinsky, has likely returned to a "major role" in Ukraine after he was believed to have been removed from Russia's operations in the war-torn country in January, the British defense ministry said on Sunday.

Teplinsky is likely to push "the corps' traditional role as an elite force," the U.K. government department added. However, it's "highly unlikely" that Teplinsky can regain the VDV's prior status because of heavy casualties among Russia's most elite soldiers, the ISW said on Sunday.

Russia's airborne units, and other elite brigades, sustained considerable losses in the early months of the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine. This has meant today's elite units are nowhere near their "former strength," as they have been backfilled with mobilized, poorly trained and often "reluctant" personnel, experts previously told Newsweek.

"Widespread losses" and a lack of thorough training will likely have "long-term impacts on the combat effectiveness of these units," the ISW said, adding that one commander is likely unable to "solve such pervasive damage."

VDV units, which had been largely deployed in the southern Kherson region, were sent to the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk areas in November 2022, the British defense ministry noted at the time, calling the airborne units "severely weakened."

In late January, a former Kremlin press officer said that Russian airborne troops had lost half of their personnel between February and September 2022. In September, the Kremlin announced a partial mobilization of 300,000 Russian reservists. The BBC's Russian service issued a confirmed count of VDV losses of 1,669 as of April 14, 2023.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment via email.